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us immigration and customs enforcement
'There Was Never a Wall': Man Beaten Nearly to Death by ICE Refutes Self-Harm Claim
“They were very racist people,” Alberto Castañeda Mondragón said of his ICE attackers. “No one insulted them... It was their character, their racism toward us, for being immigrants.”
Feb 08, 2026
A Mexican man beaten within an inch of his life last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is on the mend and on Saturday spoke out to refute what one nurse called the agency's "laughable" claim that his injuries—which include a skull shattered in eight places and five brain hemorrhages—were self-inflicted.
Alberto Castañeda Mondragón told the Associated Press that ICE agents pulled him from a friend's car outside a shopping center in St. Paul, Minnesota—where the Trump administration's ongoing Operation Metro Surge has left two people dead and thousands arrested—on January 8.
The 31-year-old father was thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and then savagely assaulted with fists and a steel baton.
"They started beating me right away when they arrested me,” he said.
Castañeda Mondragón was then dragged into an SUV and taken to a holding facility at Ft. Snelling in suburban Minneapolis where he says he was beaten again. He said he pleaded with his attackers to stop, but they just "laughed at me and hit me again."
“They were very racist people,” he said. “No one insulted them, neither me nor the other person they detained me with. It was their character, their racism toward us, for being immigrants.”
Castañeda Mondragón was taken to the emergency room at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) suffering from eight skull fractures, five life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and multiple broken facial bones.
ICE agents told HCMC nurses that Castañeda Mondragón “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall," a claim his caretakers immediately doubted. A CT scan revealed fractures to the front, back, and both sides of his skull—injuries inconsistent with running into a wall.
“It was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,” one of the nurses told the AP last month on the condition of anonymity. “There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.”
"There was never a wall," Castañeda Mondragón insisted.
Castañeda Mondragón was hospitalized for nearly three weeks. During the first week, he was minimally responsive, disoriented, and heavily sedated. His memory was damaged by the beating—he said he could not initially remember that he had a daughter—and he could not bathe himself after he was discharged from the hospital.
In addition to facing a long road to recovery, Castañeda Mondragón, who has been employed as a driver and a roofer, has been relying upon support from co-workers and his community for food, housing, and healthcare, as he is unable to work and has no health insurance. A GoFundMe page has been launched to solicit donations "for covering medical care and living expenses until he can begin working again."
"I don't know why ICE did this to me," Castañeda Mondragón said in translated remarks on the page. "They did not detain me after the hospital, I am not a criminal, and the doctors say they were untruthful about how the injuries occurred. But I prefer not to fight, I only want to recover, pay my bills, and go back to work."
On January 23, US District Judge Donovan W. Frank ruled that ICE was unlawfully detaining Castañeda Mondragón and ordered his immediate release.
Frank's ruling noted that "ICE agents have largely refused to provide information about the cause of [Castañeda Mondragón's] condition to hospital staff and counsel for [him], stating only that 'he got his shit rocked' and that he ran headfirst into a brick wall."
The ruling also stated that "despite requests by hospital staff, ICE agents have refused to leave the hospital, asserting that [Castañeda Mondragón] is under ICE custody."
"Two agents have been present at the hospital at all times since January 8, 2026," the document continues. "ICE agents used handcuffs to shackle [Castañeda Mondragón's] legs, despite requests from HCMC staff that he not be so restrained. Petitioner is now confined by hospital-issued four-point restraints in an apparent compromise between the providers and agents."
"Prior to this case, ICE had not provided any explanation for [Castañeda Mondragón's] arrest or continued detention," Frank added.
Castañeda Mondragón legally entered the United States in 2022 but reportedly overstayed his visa.
Castañeda Mondragón’s arrest came a day after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old legal observer Renee Good in Minneapolis. Seventeen days later, Customs and Border Protection officers fatally shot nurse Alex Pretti, who was also 37, in South Minneapolis after disarming him of a legally carried handgun.
The Department of Homeland Security has not announced any investigation into the attack on Castañeda Mondragón, sparking criticism from civil rights advocates and some Democratic elected officials.
Castañeda Mondragón told the AP that he considers himself lucky.
“It’s immense luck to have survived, to be able to be in this country again, to be able to heal, and to try to move forward,” he said. “For me, it’s the best luck in the world.”
But he suffers nightmares that ICE is coming for him.
“You’re left with the nightmare of going to work and being stopped,” Castañeda Mondragón said, “or that you’re buying your food somewhere, your lunch, and they show up and stop you again. They hit you.”
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Thousands Take to Milan Streets to Protest Olympics' Environmental and Social Harms, ICE
"I’m here because these Olympics are unsustainable—economically, socially, and environmentally," said one elderly protester.
Feb 08, 2026
Around 10,000 demonstrators rallied in Milan Saturday to protest the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the games, genocidal Israel's participation, and other issues.
The union and activist network Comitato Insostenibili Olimpiadi, or Unsustainable Olympics Committee, organized the demonstration, which it called "a popular gathering of social opposition, bringing together grassroots and community sports organizations, civic and environmental movements, territorial committees and student collectives."
The coalition said it is "fighting for the right to housing and for militant trade unions, movements that have stood alongside the Palestinian people, and the Global Sumud Flotilla," the seaborne campaign to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
Protesters also decried Decree Law 1660, which empowers police to preemptively detain people for up to 12 hours if they believe they may act disruptively, as well as "state racism against migrants and racialized people, and transfeminist anger against social and institutional patriarchy."
At the vanguard of the protest march were about 50 people carrying cardboard trees representing larches they said were cut down to construct the new bobsleigh track in Cortina d'Ampezzo. They held a banner reading, "Century-old trees, survivors of two wars, sacrificed for 90 seconds of competition on a bobsleigh track costing €124 million."
Stefano Nutini, a 71-year-old protester, told Reuters that "I’m here because these Olympics are unsustainable—economically, socially, and environmentally."
"These Olympic Games are against nature and against people." Thousands of people marched through Milan to protest housing costs and urban affordability on the first day of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. pic.twitter.com/iPcpXwuvQN
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) February 7, 2026
One healthcare worker at the protest told Euronews: "It's public money that has been spent on a display window. It may be interesting to have these showcase events, but at a time when there is not enough money for essential things, it makes no sense to spend it in this way."
Another demonstrator said that the Olympics "have not brought any wealth to the city of Milan and Lombardy."
"They have taken money away from social welfare, public schools, and healthcare," he added. "This money has literally been burned, and not a single lira will go to Italian citizens, particularly those in Lombardy, so these are bogus Olympics."
Other demonstrators held signs reading "ICE Out" to protest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's presence in Italy to provide security support for American athletes and officials. The agency is at the center of the Trump administration's deadly crackdown on unauthorized immigrants and their defenders in the US. On Friday, hundreds of protesters also rallied against ICE in Milan.
The protests took place as US Vice President JD Vance was in Milan as head of his country's Olympic delegation. Vance was loudly booed at Friday's opening ceremony in San Siro stadium.
While Saturday's demonstration was mostly peaceful, a small breakaway group reportedly threw firecrackers and other objects at police, who responded with brutal force, firing a water cannon, deploying chemical agents, and beating protesters with batons. A young woman suffered a head injury and a young man's arm was broken, according to il Manifesto, which reported six arrests.
Further afield, railway infrastructure was reportedly sabotaged around Bologna in Emilia-Romagna and Pesaro in coastal Marche.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni—whose right-wing government was a common subject of protesters' ire—condemned the demonstration and voiced "solidarity... with the police, the city of Milan, and all those who will see their work undermined by these gangs of criminals."
More anti-Olympics protests were set to take place in Milan on Sunday.
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Judge Denies DHS Bid to Quickly Deport Family of 5-Year-Old Liam Conejo Ramos
“Our concern remains centered on Liam and all children who deserve stability, safety, and the opportunity to be in school without fear," said an advocate for the family.
Feb 07, 2026
The Trump administration's bid to expedite deportation proceedings against 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his family faltered Friday as a judge granted them more time to plead their asylum case.
Danielle Molliver, an attorney for Ramos' family, told CNN that a judge issued a continuance in the case, meaning it is postponed to a later date.
The US Department of Homeland Security filed a motion Wednesday seeking to fast-track the Ecuadorian family's deportation. The family responded by asking the court for additional time to reply to the DHS motion.
Zena Stenvik, superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Ramos is a student, told CNN that Friday’s ruling “provides additional time, and with that, continued uncertainty for a child and his family."
“Our concern remains centered on Liam and all children who deserve stability, safety, and the opportunity to be in school without fear," Stenvik added. "We will continue to advocate for outcomes that prioritize children."
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, in the driveway of their Columbia Heights home on January 20 during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration's ongoing deadly immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities.
They were taken to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center southwest of San Antonio, Texas. Run by ICE and private prison profiteer CoreCivic, the facility has been plagued by reports of poor health and hygiene conditions and accusations of inadequate medical care for children.
Detainees report prison-like conditions and say they’ve been served moldy food infested with worms and forced to drink putrid water. Some have described the facility as “truly a living hell.”
Ramos, who fell ill during his detention in Dilley, and his father were ordered released earlier this month on a federal judge's order, and is now back in Minnesota.
Molliver accused the Trump administration of retaliating against the family following their release. Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed that “there is nothing retaliatory about enforcing the nation’s immigration laws."
Arias told Minnesota Public Radio Friday that he is uncertain about his family's future.
"The government is moving many pieces, it's doing everything possible to do us harm, so that they’ll probably deport us," he said. "We live with that fear too."
Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who helped accompany Ramos and his father back to Minnesota, said at a Friday news conference that DHS "should leave Liam alone."
“His family came in legally through the asylum process,” Castro said. “And when I left the Dilley detention center, one of the ICE officers explained to me that his father was on a one-year parole in place, so they should allow that to continue.”
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