Medical records show ICE arrest left Virginia man with brain injury

DHS disputes arrest account as Virginia officials call for investigation

José Mejía Hernandez, 45, was walking to a bus stop in Arlington on the morning of August 11 when two ICE agents got out of an unmarked vehicle and began chasing him, according to his lawyer Margaret Hellerstein. The man recalled being hit by some kind of stun gun, but did not remember what happened after that, waking up hours later in the hospital, Hellerstein said.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed in a statement that Mejía Hernandez was stopped by ICE, saying he “attempted [to] flee from the scene requiring ICE to use necessary force to gain control of the situation.” DHS said he was taken to a hospital “out of precaution” but did not respond to questions about what kind of force was used.

Mejía Hernandez remained hospitalized for several days, with ICE agents stationed by his side, according to Hellerstein. At one point, a nurse told him he had suffered a brain bleed. He was then transferred to an ICE office, fitted with an ankle monitor, and given a notice to appear before an immigration judge.

Medical records shared by his lawyers and reviewed by The Guardian show he was diagnosed with “mild TBI [traumatic brain injury]” and a “subarachnoid bleed.” Doctors noted “head, face and neck injury” and “trauma with continued pain.” Photos taken after his initial release show him with apparently severe bruising all over his face and two black eyes, with additional cuts and bruises on his hands, chest, and back.

He returned to the hospital on August 14 because he felt significantly worse and was worried about complications, Hellerstein said. Doctors ordered an MRI, but he could not complete the scan with the ankle monitor attached, according to his lawyers. To have the monitor removed, he needed paperwork specifying a date and time for the MRI, requiring a trip to the ICE office and a wait of hours, Hellerstein said. The MRI was completed several days after it was initially ordered.

DHS disputed his account that he blacked out during the arrest. “Allegations that he was unconscious and woke up in a hospital bed are FALSE,” the spokesperson said in an email. “According to officers, they rendered aide [sic], asked the individual, who was responsive, if he was okay after evading arrest, and followed their training.” DHS said he is from Mexico and is in the United States without authorization, and is now in removal proceedings.

DHS did not respond to the lawyer’s claims that he was beaten by agents, nor did it answer questions about why force was necessary or how he sustained the visible injuries. The agency said in a statement that it “take[s] allegations regarding misconduct seriously and cherish[es] the public’s trust” and “work[s] tirelessly to uphold the rule of law and hold ourselves accountable.”

Hellerstein said DHS’s statement does not accuse her client of violence or threatening behavior that would warrant the use of extreme physical force. “Is ICE’s narrative that it is acceptable and appropriate to beat a person in the head until he has a brain bleed and traumatic brain injury just because he was trying to escape?” she asked. “He was not a danger and they are not claiming he was a danger. All they are claiming is that he was trying to get away.”

Local officials called for an investigation. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democratic congressman, said in a statement that the injuries and Mejía Hernandez’s account “are extremely disturbing” and that he is “seeking further details about what happened to him in Arlington.” Beyer said his office had received reports in the past 10 days of ICE encounters in northern Virginia involving “unjustified violence or apparently warrantless detention,” including agents stopping people on the street and “responding with violence when their orders are questioned, regardless of whether those orders violate individuals’ rights.”

Beyer pointed to a recent video of an ICE agent pointing a gun at a U.S. citizen filming him in Falls Church, Virginia. ICE described the person as an “anti-ICE agitator” who was driving around agents.

Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, the top prosecutor in Arlington, said she was “deeply disturbed by the reports that ICE agents severely injured” Mejía Hernandez. She said she had reached out to local police and the state attorney general’s office about the case and urged a “thorough investigation,” writing: “No one is above the law – not any individual, not law enforcement, and not federal officials – no one.”

DHS did not respond to the prosecutor’s and congressman’s statements, saying in a statement that Beyer had refused to “protect… citizens from illegal alien crime” and “instead choose[s] to smear our law enforcement.”