A federal judge has ordered the immediate release of a Mexican man from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Minnesota after he suffered “life-threatening” head injuries after his arrest.
A man identified in court documents as Alberto C.M., who entered the country legally on a temporary worker visa in 2022, was hospitalized with skull fractures and brain hemorrhages shortly after his arrest in St. Paul during Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement officers in the state.
The cause of his injuries is still unknown. According to the lawsuit, officers told hospital staff that he was “laying down in handcuffs when he attempted to flee, and then, for unknown reasons, purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.”
ICE has “largely refused to provide information” about what happened, except to say that he “he got his s*** rocked,” according to the judge.
Hennepin County Medical Center records reflect that Albert C.M. told staff there that he was “dragged and mistreated by federal agents,” the judge wrote. He has remained in ICE custody since then, handcuffed to his hospital bed.
The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security.
Friday’s order from District Judge Donovan Frank arrived as federal agents who surged into the Minneapolis area face growing protests against the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, with demonstrations planned across the country.
The surge is Homeland Security’s largest immigration enforcement operation yet, with officers accused of violently targeting immigrants and citizens alike and facing off against protesters in clashes throughout the Minneapolis area.
Administration officials have denied allegations of unconstitutional abuse and use of force, while a federal judge has moved to block officers from “retaliatory” use of riot control weapons against demonstrators. An appeals court has temporarily frozen that order while a legal challenge continues.
“There is no reason to believe that Mr. Castaneda Mondragon was arrested for any other reason than that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time — that is, that he was a brown-skinned Latino Spanish-speaker at a location that immigration agents arbitrarily decided to target,” according to Alberto’s lawsuit.
An ICE official told the court that Alberto “was in the middle of the intake process to initiate removal proceedings when it was determined he had a head injury and needed to be taken to the hospital,” according to Judge Frank.
“The intake process has not been completed to this day, 15 days after his initial arrest,” he wrote.
In 2025, 32 people died in ICE custody, marking the deadliest year inside the agency for more than two decades, and tied for the most number of deaths among ICE detainees ever.
Within the first weeks of 2026, at least six people have died in ICE custody, according to the agency.
Healthcare workers at Minnesota’s Hennepin Healthcare have spoken out against federal officers at its hospitals, fearing that their presence there disrupts care and prevents people from seeking it out over fears that they will be targeted for arrest.
ICE agents are “bringing in their patients with injuries that are completely inconsistent with the stories that they are telling, and they are not allowing the patient to tell their side of the story of what happened,” according to state Senator Alice Mann, who spoke alongside healthcare workers and state lawmakers at the state Capitol this week.
“We see firsthand that when people delay or avoid care,” said Dr. Roli Dwivedi, a former president of the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians. “The bottom line is, is this making America healthy again?”
What Trump officials and immigration lawyers say about ICE detaining a 5-year-old
Starmer demands Trump apology over ‘appalling’ claims on UK troops in Afghanistan
Chinese asylum seeker who exposed rights abuses fights to stay in the US
Starmer ‘withdraws Chagos Islands bill’ in face of Trump’s backlash over deal
US carries out first boat strike in the Pacific since Maduro raid, killing two
FBI director ‘wanted to watch Premier League instead of meeting MI5’
