A man who says he suffered serious injuries during an immigration arrest on Columbia Pike has filed a federal claim alleging excessive force and seeking damages.
Jose Mejia Hernandez filed against the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement today (Tuesday), seeking $35 million in damages for the incident in which he claims he was shot with a Taser and hit by a federal officer’s motor vehicle while fleeing ICE.
Filing under the Federal Tort Claims Act, Mejia Hernandez alleged that officers’ actions during and after the arrest caused him brain injuries and emotional trauma that bring recurring headaches and pain, leave him in “constant fear” and prevent him from carrying out ordinary tasks, including attending to his two jobs.
The new filing, which was accompanied by a press conference this morning, is Mejia Hernandez’s most complete account of what he says happened on the morning of Aug. 11 in the parking lot of an apartment complex at Columbia Pike and S. Courthouse Road, in an incident that the Arlington County Police Department is currently investigating.
“Literally every time we’ve learned something new [about] this case, it’s heartbreaking,” Carlos Jurado, Mejia Hernandez’s immigration attorney, said at the press conference. “At every step, his constitutional rights have been violated.”
DHS has denied wrongdoing in this case, saying the 4-foot-11 Mexican immigrant is undocumented and ICE agents used “necessary force to gain control of the situation” when he attempted to flee.
“Allegations that he was unconscious and woke up in a hospital bed are FALSE,” the agency told HuffPost. “According to officers, they rendered aid, asked the individual, who was responsive, if he was okay after evading arrest, and followed their training.”
In a statement of facts, Mejia Hernandez alleged that masked, plainclothes officers in unmarked civilian vehicles approached him while he was walking to a bus stop around 6:15 a.m. Mejia Hernandez says he fled, and claims he was struck from behind with a stun gun — a constitutional violation, according to his civil rights attorney, Denisse Gastélum.
“You can’t do that in this country, particularly when that individual poses no threat, and clearly Mr. Mejia did not pose a threat,” Gastélum said.
Gastélum said that immediately after this, witnesses heard “what appeared to be a vehicle hitting a human being, hitting human flesh.” She alleges that this is what caused the head injury.
The federal claim alleges excessive force on the part of immigration enforcement, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and negligent failure to render aid. Attorneys also argue that officers’ treatment of Mejia Hernandez after his injury — pouring water over his bleeding face and helping him into a seated position, as captured in a bystander video — may have made it worse.
“Any person with basic emergency training knows that a person with a suspected head, neck, or spinal injury must not be moved,” the federal claim states. “That conduct breached both the statutory duty and the duty assumed by the undertaking, and it aggravated the brain injury Mr. Mejia Hernandez had already sustained.”
Gastélum also described a video that she says was taken at the hospital, which reportedly shows Mejia Hernandez sitting on the floor, bleeding from his head, with an ICE agent standing over him. A hospital employee allegedly demanded that Mejia Hernandez be placed in a bed and provided with an interpreter.
Mejia Hernandez says he has suffered a brain bleed from the incident and is unable to return to working 40 hours a week in commercial building cleaning and 30 hours a week in office maintenance, in addition to suffering severe psychological distress.
“He describes the incident as having changed his life completely; he lives with constant fear, feels incapable of doing many things he once did without difficulty, and continues to ask himself why this happened to him,” attorneys wrote.
The administrative claim filed today is a step toward going to court against the Department of Homeland Security. The agency will have six months to respond.
