U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sent a Minnesota man who has been hospitalized with mental health issues to Texas, despite objections from his attorneys and hospital staff that doing so would harm his wellbeing.
Agents arrested Adrian Sotelo Guzman on Feb. 19 during Operation Metro Surge, and took him to M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital after he “presented with abnormal behavior and an altered mental state,” according to the habeas corpus petition filed Thursday, Feb 26. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and “psychotic features” when he was hospitalized.Â
The petition said federal agents told the hospital that they would forcibly remove Sotelo Guzman and detain him in Texas.
“ICE has presented no clear plan to ensure that Mr. Sotelo Guzman has access to necessary psychiatric mediation or treatment, that he will not be a danger to himself or others, or that he will have the ability to participate in the court proceedings,” the petition says.
Sotelo Guzman’s family worries that he will not receive adequate care in ICE detention, and that if he is deported, he won’t know how to navigate a county he left when he was a young child, according to a fundraiser.
“In his current state, it is unlikely that he even knows or understands that he is in ICE custody,” the family’s GoFundMe page says. “Knowing his condition well, his family believes he will be unable to call them for help.”
Unidos MN said in a statement that Sotelo Guzman’s hospital discharge raises serious concerns.
“This is our worst nightmare,” said Jamey Sharp, a leader with Unidos MN’s Healthcare Justice Committee, in the statement. “A patient in active psychosis without decision making capacity — someone who cannot advocate for themselves — was discharged to ICE despite ongoing court action and concerns about medical stability. This case raises serious ethical and legal questions that must be investigated.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
Agents removed Sotelo Guzman from the hospital last Thursday and transported him to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building. While U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor on Thursday morning initially ruled that the federal government cannot transfer Sotelo Guzman out of Minnesota while his habeas corpus petition is pending, Traynor granted an emergency request from the federal government late Thursday to allow Sotelo Guzman to be sent to Texas.
The federal government wrote in its request that they could not provide Sotelo Guzman care in the Whipple Building. The government wrote that they could administer care at the Montgomery Processing Center in Houston, Texas.
Sotelo Guzman’s attorneys objected to the request, stating that he was receiving adequate care at Fairview Southdale before ICE agents removed him, and that numerous other hospitals can provide care in the state as well.
His attorney John Bruning wrote in a court filing that the federal government did not discuss the possible harm that could come to Soleteo Guzman if he is transferred to Texas, such as “moving him over 1,000 miles from this counsel, his current care team, his family and evidence and documents relevant to his immigration case.”
Bruning also wrote that due to Sotelo Guzman’s “incapacitation, it seriously infringes on his right to counsel to move him from one location where counsel can meet with him in person to one far away where he must figure out how to use the phones.”
Bruning works for Hennepin County’s Adult Representation Services. The office’s director, Jeanette Boerner, said in a statement Friday that it appeared that as of early Friday morning he was sent to the Camp East Montana detention center, a tent camp located in El Paso, Texas. Later on Friday, his attorneys were able to locate him and confirmed he was at the El Paso Behavioral Health System. Sotelo Guzman remains in ICE custody.
In a statement, Fairview said it could not comment on individual patients due to privacy laws and that it provides care to patients in custody of a law enforcement agency while following legal processes.
Sotelo Guzman, 27, first came to the United States from Mexico when he was 6, and has had Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. He lives with his family in the Twin Cities, according to the fundraiser.
“Every single one of my children and all of the mothers out there who live this sadness and pain, we hope first God hears us that family separations will end soon,” his mother said in the online fundraiser.
The petition says it is unknown what authority ICE has to hold him in custody, and that Sotelo Guzman is unaware of any judicial or administrative warrant for his arrest.
Minnesota court records show Sotelo Guzman only has convictions for minor traffic offenses.
After he was hospitalized, Fairview Southdale petitioned in Hennepin County District Court on Feb. 24 for Sotelo Guzman to be civilly committed as a person who “poses a risk to harm due to mental illness,” the petition says. The civil commitment case is ongoing, with a hearing scheduled for March 4.
“ICE has not provided justification to Mr. Sotelo Guzman or the hospital as to why he must be immediately removed from the hospital and spirited away to Texas — that is why it is an emergency to act out this transfer,” the petition says. “In fact, ICE has repeatedly moved up the announced transfer time. It appears that this action by ICE is intended to interfere with the state court proceedings.”
Elliot Butay, the senior policy coordinator at the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Health, said even just the presence of law enforcement when someone is having a mental health crisis can escalate a situation.
“Knowing that the agents are just there, is going to probably make it worse and not make it better for their mental health,” Butay said.
ICE officers remained in or just outside the emergency department at Fairview Southdale during the week Sotelo Guzman was hospitalized, which the petition argued was “disruptive.”
A health care worker at Fairview Southdale, who declined to be named as he was not authorized by his employer to discuss the case, said ICE’s presence at the hospital was “stressful,” and that he did not feel safe at work. He said Sotelo Guzman was not able to get the care that he needed due to being in ICE custody.
He said when agents removed Sotelo Guzman from the hospital, he did not have shoes on, only his socks. When agents brought him to the hospital, Sotelo Guzman did not have shoes on, and he said agents did not make an effort to find him any before removing him.Â
“It felt very bad to watch an ill person who needs help be handcuffed and walked out of the hospital without shoes on, when what they need is hospitalization,” he said.
Unidos MN said in its statement that the group is calling for an investigation into Sotelo Guzman’s discharge from Fairview Southdale. The statement says that the discharge occurred despite legal and medical concerns.
“Hospitals must prioritize patient safety and medical ethics,” the statement says. “Unidos MN calls on hospital leadership and state regulators to conduct a full review and implement clear safeguards to prevent this from happening again.”
Health care workers have been pushing Fairview to institute stronger policies surrounding ICE presence in hospitals. Some spoke at a Feb. 20 news conference outside M Health Fairview’s University of Minnesota Medical Center.
