Detroiter says ICE agents broke her knee, disputing agency’s account

A Venezuelan asylum seeker injured during an encounter with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last month has submitted a sworn statement that contradicts the agency’s version of events.

Yerlys Moreno López said ICE agents forced her to the ground after a May 19 car chase and crash, breaking her knee and causing other injuries that required emergency surgery. The agency claims she sustained the injuries in the crash itself. Medical records submitted by her attorneys appear to support her account. At the hospital a few hours after the incident, Moreno López repeatedly told doctors that she was injured after getting out of her vehicle.

Moreno López’s injuries fuel concerns that ICE’s tactics have become increasingly violent during President Donald Trump’s second term. Another migrant, Mohamd Salim Abdessamed, was severely injured last week after an apparent ICE car chase.

ICE has denied misconduct by its agents during Moreno López’s detention.

Moreno López and Abdessamed were both treated at hospitals in the Detroit area — the Detroit Medical Center’s Detroit Receiving Hospital and Corewell Health in Dearborn, respectively — that refused to share information about the patients’ medical statuses, even with family members, apparently bowing to pressure from ICE.

Attorneys for Moreno López filed a petition for habeas corpus in federal court seeking her immediate release from the North Lake detention center, arguing that she was unlawfully detained and won’t receive adequate medical care.

Competing accounts

Moreno López, who entered the country through legal channels in 2024, had just left her home on Detroit’s eastside on May 19 when ICE agents attempted to pull her over.

According to her sworn statement, she tried to drive away before agents cut her off, causing her to crash her SUV into a parked car.

Jennifer Newby, an assistant attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, asserted in federal court last week that Moreno López broke her kneecap in the crash.

But medical records submitted by her attorneys indicate she told hospital staff that her injuries occurred after.

“She was getting out of her car when she was tackled to the ground and hit her knees, right elbow/arm and left side of her face on the concrete,” one doctor wrote.

In her sworn statement, Moreno López said, “I exited my car. Two ICE agents tackled me to the ground. One, with orange hair and a beard, grabbed my hair and pulled my shirt.”

According to her medical records, Moreno López’s injuries include a fractured kneecap, a laceration on the other knee that required eight stitches, a large scrape on her right forearm, a blow to the head, and bruises on her neck and face. She did not lose consciousness during the incident, and scans found no severe brain injury, though she was diagnosed with head trauma.

‘Subpar medical care’

After Moreno López’s surgery, doctors prescribed orthopedic rehabilitation. They expected her to be discharged to an ICE facility in Cincinnati capable of meeting her medical needs, records show.

Instead, she was taken to North Lake, where detainees have held hunger strikes to protest inadequate healthcare access. Failures of care at the facility are “pervasive and serious,” according to a recent report from the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.

North Lake medical records filed by the government show that the facility’s initial care program for Moreno López involved walking down a hallway three times a day using a walker.

Her attorneys argue she should be freed immediately because the facility’s “subpar medical care” would cause her irreparable harm.

ICE attorneys argue that there is no evidence that Moreno López has received inadequate medical care at North Lake.

GEO Group, the for-profit company that operates North Lake, referred questions to ICE.

“These incidents are not just a matter of immigration policy, but also civil rights and healthcare for vulnerable individuals,” said Christine Sauvé, spokesperson for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. “It really is a public health crisis. Patients like Yerlys may suffer harm when returned to immigration detention where specialty medical care is routinely unavailable or inadequate, despite the laws and policies requiring it.”

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This story was originally published by Outlier Media and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.