I don’t know how many people remember the original incident, but this does give us the high … low points. This comes from a gentleman who was pulled out of a car, and it went very, very, very downhill from there. While we try to track everything that ICE/CBP has done, this is definitely one we should add. I can think of 4 so far – Ms Good, Mr Pretti, and the pair of people who were shot in Portland. I guess we can include the two National Guard units in Washington, DC (Trump should never have had them there in the first place). If you have any others, I’m not ‘braining’ too well today, so please pass them along. With thanks to Raw Story:
A Mexican man beaten within an inch of his life last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is on the mend and on Saturday spoke out to refute what one nurse called the agency’s “laughable” claim that his injuries—which include a skull shattered in eight places and five brain hemorrhages—were self-inflicted. Alberto Castañeda Mondragón told the Associated Press that ICE agents pulled him from a friend’s car outside a shopping center in St. Paul, Minnesota—where the Trump administration’s ongoing Operation Metro Surge has left two people dead and thousands arrested—on January 8. The 31-year-old father was thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and then savagely assaulted with fists and a steel baton.
A steel baton. No wonder his skull was broken in multiple places and he had brain bleeds! Here’s the official diagnosis: Castañeda Mondragón was taken to the emergency room at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) suffering from eight skull fractures, five life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and multiple broken facial bones. I’m surprised he didn’t have internal injuries if they were beating him so badly. A stomp with a boot on the ribs would do something. We should be *very* glad they apparently didn’t think of that. The pain must have been incredible.
On January 23, US District Judge Donovan W. Frank ruled that ICE was unlawfully detaining Castañeda Mondragón and ordered his immediate release. Frank’s ruling noted that “ICE agents have largely refused to provide information about the cause of [Castañeda Mondragón’s] condition to hospital staff and counsel for [him], stating only that ‘he got his shit rocked’ and that he ran headfirst into a brick wall.” The ruling also stated that “despite requests by hospital staff, ICE agents have refused to leave the hospital, asserting that [Castañeda Mondragón] is under ICE custody.” “Prior to this case, ICE had not provided any explanation for [Castañeda Mondragón’s] arrest or continued detention,” Frank added.
ICE also insisted Mondragón be restrained at all times, and there are ICE agents in his room all the time. Can you imagine? The people who messed you up are standing guard in your room. As if someone could move very fast with multiple traumatic head injuries! What a bunch of hooey, ‘guarding’ a man who won’t be able to escape. It’s ridiculous and probably makes the hoodlums feel important. Feh.
Castañeda Mondragón told the AP that he considers himself lucky. “It’s immense luck to have survived, to be able to be in this country again, to be able to heal, and to try to move forward,” he said. “For me, it’s the best luck in the world.” But he suffers nightmares that ICE is coming for him. “You’re left with the nightmare of going to work and being stopped,” Castañeda Mondragón said, “or that you’re buying your food somewhere, your lunch, and they show up and stop you again. They hit you.”
Yea, hitting people is a big thing for them. They have free rein, and they’re protected after all because of Gnome and her shizzle. They have no morals, no overwatch, nothing to keep them under control anymore. And unfortunately, Trump (and probably Stephen Miller) is enjoying this far, far too much. That’s wretched. And petty. Now that they are being given body cameras, it just means they will ‘accidentally’ forget to use them or forget to turn them on. I’m not sure they will do any good! Nothing is going to change. But We the People can fight. They can’t get all of us at once. So. See you soon!
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