lberto Castañeda Mondragón's memory was jumbled after he says he was badly beaten last month while being taken into custody by immigration officers. He did not remember much of his past, but the violence of the Jan. 8 arrest in Minnesota was seared into his battered brain.
The Mexican immigrant told The Associated Press this week that he remembers Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulling him from a friend’s car outside a St. Paul shopping center and throwing him to the ground, handcuffing him, and then punching him and striking his head with a steel baton.
He remembers being taken to a detention facility, where he said he was beaten again. Then came the emergency room and the intense pain from eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages.
Castañeda Mondragón, 31, is one of an unknown number of immigration detainees who, despite avoiding deportation, have been left with lasting injuries following violent encounters with ICE. While the Trump administration insists ICE limits its enforcement operations to immigrants with violent rap sheets, he has no criminal record.
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Here’s what to know about the case, one of the excessive-force claims the federal government has thus far declined to investigate.
Immigrant says attack was unprovoked
ICE officers who arrested Castañeda Mondragón on Jan. 8 told nurses the man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” an account Hennepin County Medical Center staff immediately doubted. A CT scan showed fractures to the front, back and both sides of his skull — injuries a doctor told AP were inconsistent with a fall.
ICE's account evolved as Castañeda Mondragón lay stricken in the hospital. At least one officer told staff the man "got his (expletive) rocked,” according to court documents filed by a lawyer seeking his release and nurses who treated him.
“There was never a wall,” Castañeda Mondragón told AP, recalling ICE officers striking him with the same metal rod used to break the windows of the vehicle he was in. He later identified it as a telescoping baton routinely carried by law enforcement.
Training materials and police use-of-force policies across the U.S. say such a baton can be used to hit the arms, legs and body. But striking the head, neck or spine is considered potentially deadly force.
RELATED STORY | Autopsy finds Cuban immigrant in ICE custody died of homicide due to asphyxia
Once he was taken to an ICE holding facility in suburban Minneapolis, Castañeda Mondragón said, officers resumed beating him. He said he pleaded with them to get a doctor, but they just “laughed at me and hit me again."
DHS will not discuss the case
The Trump administration this week announced a broad rollout of body cameras for immigration officers in Minneapolis even as the government draws down ICE’s presence there. But it's not clear whether Castañeda Mondragón's arrest was captured on body-camera footage or if there might be additional recordings from security cameras at the detention center.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, has not responded to repeated requests for comment on the case.
The government's only acknowledgment of the injuries came in a Jan. 20 court filing that said it was learned during his arrest that “had a head injury that required emergency medical treatment."
The same filing said Castañeda Mondragón entered the U.S. legally in March 2022 and that the agency determined only after his arrest that he had overstayed his visa. A federal judge ruled his arrest had been unlawful and ordered him released from ICE custody.
Elected officials call for accountability
The case has drawn the attention of several officeholders in Minnesota, including Gov. Tim Walz, who this week posted an AP story about the case on X. But it's not clear whether any state authorities are investigating how Castañeda Mondragón was injured.
The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, which oversees St. Paul, urged Castañeda Mondragón to file a police report to prompt an investigation. He said he plans to file a complaint. A St. Paul police spokesperson said the department would investigate “all alleged crimes that are reported to us.”
“We are seeing a repeated pattern of Trump Administration officials attempting to lie and gaslight the American people when it comes to the cruelty of this ICE operation in Minnesota,” Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, said in a statement.
Rep. Kelly Morrison, another Democrat and a doctor, recently toured the Whipple Building, the ICE facility at Ft. Snelling. She said she saw severe overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and an almost complete lack of medical care. She and other Minnesota Democrats say injuries that occur in ICE custody should be investigated.
“If any one of our police officers did this, you know what just happened in Minnesota with George Floyd, we hold them accountable,” said Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum, whose district includes St. Paul. “There’s no reason why federal agents should not be held to the same high standard.”
