Federal agents arrested kidney transplant recipient delivering groceries and detained him without medication, family and lawmakers say

Federal officers in Minnesota detained a recent kidney transplant recipient who was delivering groceries for a church’s mutual aid group after ramming his car, according to his wife and a state lawmaker advocating for his release.

He was detained without his medication and is reportedly being sent to a detention center in Texas where he may not have access to medicine to prevent his body from rejecting his new kidney, according to Minnesota state Rep. Kim Hicks.

Hicks told Minnesota Public Radio that she tried to deliver Javier Abreu-Vasquez’s medication to the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis after his arrest Thursday but was denied without a doctor’s note, she said.

The 38-year-old man from the Dominican Republic, whose family says is in the country legally, was able to access his medication Friday, but Hicks and Abreu-Vasquez’s wife fear that his body could reject the transplant without continued access to life-saving medicine while in detention in Texas.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement “is aware of his recent kidney transplant, and his family sent the medications and medical documentation. ICE is working with the family to ensure he gets all of his needed medications,” Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Independent.

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The details of his arrest and current legal status in the United States are unclear, but his arrest follows a wave of similar actions across the Minneapolis area in recent weeks after President Donald Trump surged more than 3,000 federal officers into the state to support his mass deportation efforts.

“It feels like it doesn’t matter what we’re trying to do,” Hicks told MPR Friday. “These are simple human rights, things that most Minnesotans believe should happen — access to counsel, access to life saving medication — and yet it's being denied.”

Abreu-Vasquez was reportedly delivering groceries for mutual aid work through his church when federal officers rammed into his car and broke his car window to arrest him, according to the man’s family and photos of the scene shared by Hicks.

Hicks said he has an alien registration number, which the government provides every immigrant seeking permanent legal status or a green card, work permits or other legal status.

“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” McLaughlin said in a statement to The Independent.

“This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. This is the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives,” she said.

“I don’t understand why the federal government is taking Minnesotans who are not criminals, who are part of our communities, and violently ripping them off the streets after running into their cars, and then denying them access to life saving medication,” Hicks told MPR.

“For what purpose? What is the end goal here?” she added. “This is not the worst of the worst.”

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The Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge is its largest immigration enforcement operation yet, resulting in more than 3,000 arrests over the last nine weeks, according to Homeland Security, and an avalanche of lawsuits alleging unlawful detentions and violent use of force against immigrants and legal residents alike.

The Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which holds immigration courts and other federal offices for immigration enforcement, is also housing dozens of people arrested during the surge.

Detainees have reported abhorrent and abusive conditions inside the building, which is not designed to hold detainees for long periods of time.

One former detainee, a legal refugee with a pending green card, told the Minnesota Star Tribune she was shackled at the ankles and held in a locked bathroom with three men, a room that had no bedding or pillows and a sink that didn’t work.

Detainees were fed one sandwich a day, the detainee alleges.

The allegations echo testimony and statements from immigrants held in makeshift detention facilities at the center of lawsuits in New York and Chicago as the Trump administration deploys officers to boost arrests and swiftly remove detainees from the country.