![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hospital5.jpg\")
Bonfilia Sanchez Dominguez with a young member of her congregation at Minnetonka Seventh-Day Adventist Church that she and her husband help babysit. Credit: Provided<\/p>\nBack pain sent Bonfilia Sanchez Dominguez to the ER early Thursday morning, driven by her husband, Liborio Parral Ortiz.<\/p>\n
But a stop by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents turned the Mounds View couple\u2019s trip to the hospital into a nightmare.<\/p>\n
Within 24 hours, Parral Ortiz was in ICE detention in El Paso, Texas, and Sanchez Dominguez was trapped at Mercy Hospital\u2019s Unity Campus in Fridley, blocked by ICE agents and hospital staff from access to her bedside.<\/p>\n
Security staff at the hospital also threatened to arrest the woman\u2019s lawyer when he attempted to speak with her, the couple\u2019s daughter, Shelly Parral Ortiz, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were just racially profiled and picked up and kidnapped without a destination,\u201d she said, her voice breaking.<\/p>\n
In a statement to Sahan Journal, Allina Health spokeswoman Jenny Griswold Steingas declined to comment on the case, citing patient privacy. Allina Health owns Mercy Hospital.<\/p>\n
The statement said the hospital system \u201cfollows long-established procedures when interacting with law enforcement, including ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early-morning health emergency<\/p>\n
Around 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning, Parral Ortiz was driving Sanchez Dominguez, who was experiencing back pain, to the Mercy Hospital Unity Campus. Before they could arrive, however, they were stopped by ICE.<\/p>\n
Liborio was on the phone with his daughter when he was pulled over.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got in front of their car and didn\u2019t let them go past,\u201d Shelly said. \u201cThey started opening their doors and pulling them. They were not asking them any questions, they just started grabbing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liborio Parral Ortiz was immediately taken into custody, while Sanchez Dominguez was taken by ICE to the hospital. According to his family, Parral Ortiz was moved to El Paso, Texas, less than 20 hours after he was initially detained, before they could bring him his diabetes medication. As of Saturday morning, ICE\u2019s detainee locator system confirmed Liborio was still in El Paso.<\/p>\n
Shelly and her brother arrived at the hospital later that morning to be with their mother, who had several ICE agents waiting outside her room. Shelly was told by hospital staff that if they left, they would not be allowed to return to see their mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nurses told me that if I walk out I\u2019m not going to be able to come back and find her,\u201d Shelly said. \u201cBecause I\u2019ll look for her name, I\u2019ll ask for her name, and she will not be in the system and they\u2019ll tell me she\u2019s not here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later that morning, Shelly accompanied her mother to an MRI scan. After the scan was complete, Shelly said her mother tried to leave the hospital.<\/p>\n
However, another nurse intervened and physically prevented Sanchez Dominguez from leaving, pushing her back onto the MRI table, Sanchez Dominguez told Shelly. Shelly said that at no point was Sanchez Dominguez informed by ICE agents why she\u2019d been detained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nurses then took Sanchez Dominguez to her room on the second floor and told Shelly and her brother to take the elevator and meet their mother there. When they arrived at the room, hospital staff told her ICE agents said that the siblings were not allowed to be there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cICE wouldn\u2019t even let us sit in the lobby,\u201d Shelly said. \u201cThey eventually told us that \u2018You guys have to leave this lobby, you\u2019re not allowed to be here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Bonfilia Sanchez Dominguez with a young member of her congregation at Minnetonka Seventh-Day Adventist Church that she and her husband help babysit. Credit: Provided<\/p>\n
\u2018There\u2019s no patient here with that name\u2019<\/p>\n
The same morning, Ray Valenzuela, a pastor at the Minnetonka Seventh-Day Adventist Church, where the family attends services, arrived at the hospital to support the family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With his pastor ID and Bible in hand, Valenzuela approached the front desk and said he was there to see Sanchez Dominguez. The staff told him there was no one by that name under the care of the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first I second-guessed myself, maybe I went to the wrong hospital, have the wrong room,\u201d Valenzuela said. \u201cBut I\u2019m literally texting Shelly and she gave me the hospital and room.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI repeated [the room number] to the front desk and she said \u201cno, no,\u201d and she was just a little nervous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Valenzuela contacted an attorney from the congregation, Paul Hultgren, who agreed to assist the family. When Hultgren went to Mercy Hospital the following day, he was met with the same resistance as Valenzuela from the front desk staff.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u201c[I] said \u2018I\u2019m here to see the mother, I\u2019m the attorney and I need to speak with my client,\u2019\u201d Hultgren said. \u201cThe check-in person, she kind of immediately knew who I was talking about, and she said \u2018I have to talk to my supervisor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
After waiting in the lobby for 25 minutes without an update, Hultgren and a family friend went upstairs to the second floor. There, a security guard brought out a managing nurse who reiterated that Sanchez Dominguez was not at the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like that\u2019s absurd, Shelly and the family were there yesterday,\u201d Hultgren said. \u201cShe\u2019s still here. And he kind of just kept on repeating that, saying there\u2019s no patient here with that name.\u201d<\/p>\n
The security guard then threatened to arrest Hultgren and the family friend for trespassing on hospital property. Hultgren told Sahan Journal that as they were leaving, the security guard followed them to their cars and recorded his licence plate number.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a brief phone call with Sahan Journal, an unidentified representative in the emergency department of Mercy Hospital\u2019s Fridley campus said she could not provide any information before abruptly hanging up. <\/p>\n
Sahan also reached out to ICE and DHS, and is awaiting a response.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Health care workers push back on ICE presence<\/p>\n
ICE presence has been reported at hospitals across Minnesota, including at Regions Hospital<\/a> in St. Paul and Hennepin County Medical Center<\/a> in Minneapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n