For more than a month, federal immigration officials surveilled Bayron Rovidio Marin in a hospital bed at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he lay recuperating from serious injuries to his leg after an encounter with agents at a Carson car wash they raided. He was never charged and his lawyers say he was shackled to his bed for several days and couldn’t speak privately with doctors or legal counsel.
Over the weekend, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order requiring immigration officials to remove the guards watching over Bayron Rovidio Marin, take off the handcuffs and leave him unrestrained.
“He is presently detained under restrictions that limit his access to counsel, medical providers, and family,” U.S. District Judge Cynthia Valenzuela wrote in her Oct. 4 order. “He has been questioned by government officials while in pain and under the influence of medication. He cannot place phone calls and remains handcuffed to a hospital bed despite a broken leg that prevents him from walking. He has received no more than a vague explanation for his detention, and Respondents’ proffered excuses for delaying a formal notice are unsupported by facts.”
Despite Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s insistence on holding the man, Valenzuela said the government failed to provide any proof that he had “violated any law or regulation” or show that he was a “flight risk.”
To date, ICE has not placed Rovidio Marin in removal proceedings, charged him with violating immigration law, set bond, issued a Notice to Appear or otherwise processed him, according to the order. The government told the court that they would determine the immigration status of Rovidio Marin once he was released from the hospital. His attorneys argued being indefinitely held without any charges is a clear constitutional violation.
The Department of Homeland Security and the medical center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under federal law, officers initiating warrantless arrests must provide the person in custody a reason why they were arrested or detained and within 48 hours determine if the person will remain in custody, released on bond or given a notice to appear in court and an arrest warrant issued. Those rules are only waived in extraordinary circumstances. The judge noted that the September 11 attacks previously qualified as an “extraordinary circumstance” in delaying notices to appear to noncitizen detainees, but said that Rovidio Marin has been held “substantially longer.”
Kyle Cheney, with Politico, first posted about the case on social media.
It’s unclear exactly how he was injured, but his lawyers say that Rovidio Marin had been at the car wash on Aug. 27, when immigration agents doing a “roving patrol” stormed in and raided it.
In an emailed press statement, Cynthia Santiago, Attorney for CLEAN Carwash Worker Center and Nicolas Thompson-Lleras, Attorney for CHIRLA said he suffered severe injuries and was arrested by Border Patrol agents who transferred him into ICE custody.
“For 37 days, our client was forced to endure medical treatment and recovery with ICE agents in his room, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” the statement read. “ICE agents listened to every conversation between him and his doctors,” they stated. “They interrogated him while he was in pain and under the influence of medication. They did not permit him to see his family and removed his access to phone calls.”
According to the judge’s order, Rovidio Marin has been under the supervision of ICE, which contracted with Spectrum Detention Services to provide guards at the hospital where he was taken.
Once admitted he was placed under what is known as a “blackout” procedure for patients in law-enforcement custody, making it harder for anyone to find him. He was registered under the pseudonym “Har Maine UNK Thirteen.”
Two to four uniformed guards —either Spectrum employees or ICE agents— “have been continuously stationed in Petitioner’s hospital room, monitoring him at all times, including while he sleeps, eats, uses the restroom, or receives medical care,” according to a declaration referenced in the order.
“It’s fundamental that you can’t be detained indefinitely without charges,” said Jean Reisz, co-director of the USC Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic, who is representing Rovidio Marin in the habeas case. “Freedom from restraint is the cornerstone of our society and so to arrest someone and withhold their liberty for an extended period of time without any charges, it’s antithetical to our constitutional system and our immigration laws. Our immigration laws do provide for the rights of immigrants as well.”
The temporary restraining order expires Oct. 18.
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