Man suffered brain injury and severe bruising after ICE arrest in Virginia, records show

José Mejía Hernandez, 45, who was hospitalized for his injuries, was then transferred to an ICE office and fitted with an ankle monitor

A man in Virginia was hospitalized with a brain injury and severe bruising all over his face after he was arrested by US immigration agents, according to his lawyers, who shared photos and medical records with the Guardian.

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

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson confirmed that Mejía Hernandez was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a statement, saying he “attempted [to] flee from the scene requiring ICE to use necessary force to gain control of the situation” and was taken to a hospital “out of precaution”.

The DHS did not respond to questions about what kind of force was used.

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

Photos after his initial release show him with apparently severe bruising all over his face and two black eyes. He also appeared to have cuts and bruises on his hands, chest and back.

Mejía Hernández returned to the hospital on 14 August because he was feeling significantly worse and was worried about complications from his injuries, Hellerstein said. A copy of one his medical records showed he was diagnosed with “mild TBI [traumatic brain injury]” and a “subarachnoid bleed”. Doctors noted in one record that he had a “head, face and neck injury” and “trauma with continued pain”.

Doctors ordered him to get an MRI, the records show. But his lawyers said he was not able to do the scan with an ankle monitor attached to him. When he tried to get his ankle monitor removed, ICE said he needed to get paperwork specifying a date and time for the MRI, requiring him to go back to the ICE office and wait for hours to get the monitor removed, Hellerstein said.

Mejía Hernández was able to get the MRI done several days after doctors had ordered the exam, according to his lawyer.

The DHS’s spokesperson disputed Mejía Hernández’s claim that he blacked out during his arrest, saying in an email, “Allegations that he was unconscious and woke up in a hospital bed are FALSE. According to officers, they rendered aide [sic], asked the individual, who was responsive, if he was okay after evading arrest, and followed their training.” The statement also said ICE was not denying him the opportunity to have his ankle monitor removed for medical purposes, saying he needed to fill out necessary paperwork first and have a tracking app downloaded on his phone and that after his procedure, the ankle monitor would be re-attached.

The DHS said Mejía Hernández was from Mexico and in the country without authorization, and was now in removal proceedings.

While it is unclear exactly what happened during the arrest and how Mejía Hernández was injured, Hellerstein said it seemed agents had used violent tactics without justification. She noted that the DHS’s statement does not accuse her client of any violence or threatening behavior that would possibly 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 said. “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.”

She added: “He has been treated as less than human. It’s just unconscionable how unimportant this man’s life is to these people.”

The DHS did not respond to claims that he was beaten by agents and did not answer questions about why force was necessary during the arrest. The spokesperson also declined to answer questions about his medical diagnoses and how he got the bruises seen in the photos.

“We take allegations regarding misconduct seriously and cherish the public’s trust. We work tirelessly to uphold the rule of law and hold ourselves accountable,” the DHS said.

Photos of Mejía Hernández’s injuries have spread widely on social media, sparking outrage and condemnation from local officials.

Don Beyer, a Virginia Democratic congressman, said in a statement on Tuesday: “The injuries to José Mejía Hernández and his account of how he received them are extremely disturbing, and I am seeking further details about what happened to him in Arlington. It [is] essential to establish the facts in this case, and, if this is another instance of unjustified violence by ICE agents, to hold them accountable.”

He said his office had received reports of several other ICE encounters in northern Virginia in the past 10 days of “unjustified violence or apparently warrantless detention”. He said that included ICE agents stopping people on the street, asking for ID and “responding with violence when their orders are questioned, regardless of whether those orders violate individuals’ rights”.

The congressman pointed to a recent video of an ICE agent pointing a gun at a US 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 in a statement that she was “deeply disturbed by the reports that ICE agents severely injured” Mejía Hernández.

The prosecutor said she had reached out to local police and the state attorney general’s office about the case and urged a “thorough investigation”, writing: “I am committed to upholding the rule of law and holding all individuals who violate the law in our community accountable in the appropriate ways. No one is above the law – not any individual, not law enforcement, and not federal officials – no one.”

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