Mexican Immigrant Says ICE Agents Beat Him Up, While Agency Claims He ‘Purposefully Ran Headfirst into a Brick Wall’

A Mexican immigrant in Minnesota says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents assaulted him without provocation during an arrest last month, causing severe head injuries.

Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, 31, told the Associated Press in an interview published Friday, Feb. 6, that he did not “purposefully” run “headfirst into a brick wall,” as ICE agents alleged in court documents.

Castañeda Mondragón said he was sitting in a friend’s car outside a St. Paul shopping center on Jan. 8 when ICE agents pulled him out, threw him to the ground, handcuffed him, and began striking him. He claimed agents punched him and hit his head with a steel baton, then dragged him to an SUV and transported him to a detention center, where he says he was beaten again.

“They started beating me right away when they arrested me,” he said.

He recalled later being taken to the emergency room at Hennepin County Medical Center while in intense pain. A CT scan showed fractures to the front, back, and both sides of his skull, he said. Medical staff told him he had eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages, according to AP, and he remained disoriented for days afterward.

ICE agents have claimed he “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” but hospital workers told AP they doubted that explanation, saying the injuries seen on scans were more consistent with a fall. An outside physician also supported that assessment, per AP.

“There was never a wall,” Castañeda Mondragón said. He alleged agents used excessive force and described a metal rod he later identified as an ASP — a telescoping baton commonly carried by law enforcement, according to AP.

He told AP that agents used the baton to break a car window and also to strike him. He said he plans to file a complaint against ICE.

In a Jan. 20 declaration filed in federal court, ICE deportation officer William J. Robinson wrote that Castañeda Mondragón entered the U.S. legally in March 2022 and that authorities later determined he had overstayed his visa. Robinson also noted that the 31-year-old “had a head injury that required emergency medical treatment.”

Minn. Gov. Tim Waltz criticized what he called the “aggressive” manner in which Castañeda Mondragón and others have been detained in a post on X.

“Law enforcement cannot be lawless,” he said. “Thousands of aggressive, untrained agents of the federal government continue to injure and terrorize Minnesotans. This must end.”

Other officials, including St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, have called for an investigation into Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries earlier this week, according to AP.