By
KOBY LEVIN/Outlier Media
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.
