Jose Mejia Hernandez says he can’t recall exactly what happened after immigration officers stopped to detain him on his way to work in Northern Virginia last week. He remembers that two men jumped out of unmarked cars and approached him, he recounts in videos posted to social media, and says that when he tried to run they shot him with a Taser and he lost consciousness.
When he awoke, Mejia Hernandez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was in a hospital bed, his face swollen with deep purple bruises and cuts — and under guard by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, he said in videos and according to his attorney. He was hospitalized for three days with a traumatic brain injury and a brain bleed, according to medical records his attorney shared with The Washington Post.
As photos and videos of a bruised Mejia Hernandez, 45, spread across social media in recent days, he and his supporters have alleged that ICE officers Tasered and assaulted him during the arrest.
The Department of Homeland Security denied the assault allegations and said officers used necessary force to detain Mejia Hernandez after he tried to evade arrest in connection with being in the country without authorization.
A Virginia congressman and Arlington’s top prosecutor are demanding answers from federal authorities and police about the incident. Another state lawmaker asked any potential witnesses to the arrest to come forward.
Rep. Don Beyer (D) said in a statement that 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.”
Parisa Dehghani-Tafti (D), the commonwealth’s attorney for Arlington County, on Tuesday urged the county’s police department to investigate what happened in the case, saying she was “deeply disturbed” by the assault allegations.
“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,” Dehghani-Tafti said in a statement. “No one is above the law — not any individual, not law enforcement, and not federal officials — no one.”
An Arlington police spokeswoman said in a statement Thursday that the department is “reviewing information received from concerned community members. However, at this time, the department has not had direct contact with the involved parties and no police report has been filed regarding the incident.”
The spokeswoman, Ashley Savage, added that the department does not participate in civil immigration enforcement and was not present during the incident involving Mejia Hernandez.
Originally from Mexico, Mejia Hernandez entered the United States illegally in 2006. According to DHS, he was deported that same year and reentered the U.S. in 2008. In 2020, Mejia Hernandez was convicted on a charge of public intoxication, DHS said.
He is in removal proceedings before an immigration judge but has not been given a deportation order, said his attorney, Carlos Jurado.
According to Jurado, Mejia Hernandez was walking to a bus stop along Columbia Pike in Arlington on Aug. 11 when an unmarked truck came to a stop in front of him. Two men got out and began quickly moving toward him.
Jurado said Mejia Hernandez, unaware that the men were officers, tried to flee. He said Mejia Hernandez told him he felt a Taser being fired into his back.
Jurado said Mejia Hernandez woke up hours later in a hospital with “obvious signs of blunt-force trauma to his face and his body.” He was released three days later after immigration officers attached an ankle monitor, Jurado said.
“During those three days that he was detained, his family did not know where he was at,” Jurado said in an interview. “DHS did not call them. The hospital did not call the family.”
George Washington University Hospital, where Mejia Hernandez was initially treated, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. DHS did not immediately respond to a question asking whether it notified family members of his hospitalization.
Jurado said Mejia Hernandez woke up at home last Friday still not feeling well and sought additional treatment. But he said that his client was unable to get an MRI while wearing the ankle monitor, and that ICE initially rejected efforts to have it removed before ultimately agreeing to do so on Tuesday. Mejia Hernandez sought treatment at a hospital in Northern Virginia that evening, Jurado said.
In a statement Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security contested the assault allegation, saying that Mejia Hernandez attempted to evade arrest and that officers used “necessary force to gain control of the situation. He was taken into custody and later to a hospital out of precaution.”
DHS added: “Allegations that he was unconscious and woke up in a hospital bed are FALSE. According to officers, they rendered aid, asked the individual, who was responsive, if he was okay after evading arrest, and followed their training.”
DHS also denied that officers refused to remove Mejia Hernandez’s ankle monitor for medical purposes, and noted there is a process for requesting temporary removal of the devices.
Jurado, the attorney, said that his client is focused for the moment on recovering from his injuries, but that “we’re going to explore anything and everything that possible for legal recourses on this case.”
Mejia Hernandez’s arrest comes amid intensifying scrutiny of immigration actions in Northern Virginia, including an Aug. 10 incident in which an ICE officer was recorded aiming his firearm at Carolina Molina, a U.S. citizen.
Beyer and Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D) on Wednesday called for an investigation of the recent incidents after meeting with Molina on Capitol Hill.
“This dangerous and dishonest nonsense unfortunately matches what we’ve seen from ICE, not just in Virginia but across the country,” Beyer said at a news conference. “We want these agents off our streets and out of our communities.”
The post Virginia lawmakers demand answers after man says ICE officers assaulted him appeared first on Washington Post.
