Federal agents in Minnesota have arrested a recent kidney transplant recipient while he was delivering groceries for a church mutual aid group, detaining him without his essential anti-rejection medication, according to his wife and a state lawmaker.
Minnesota state Representative Kim Hicks said she tried to deliver Javier Abreu-Vasquez’s medication to the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis after his arrest on Thursday but was refused entry without a doctor’s note. The 38-year-old Dominican Republic man, who his family says is legally in the country, was eventually able to access his medication on Friday, but Hicks and his wife fear his body may reject the transplant without continued access to the drugs while he is transferred to a detention centre in Texas.
Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Independent that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is aware of his kidney transplant and is working with the family to ensure he receives all necessary medication. The details of his arrest and legal status remain unclear, but the incident follows a surge of federal officers into Minnesota under President Donald Trump’s Operation Metro Surge, which has resulted in over 3,000 arrests in nine weeks.
Hicks criticised the violent nature of the arrest, noting that officers rammed Abreu-Vasquez’s car and broke his window. She questioned the purpose of denying life-saving medication to someone who is not a criminal. Reports of poor conditions at the Whipple Federal Building, including detainees being shackled in bathrooms and fed only one sandwich a day, have emerged amid multiple lawsuits alleging unlawful detentions and excessive force.
