ICE to wife of detained man: “If he dies, he dies, life goes on.”
Alfredo is in critical condition after being denied medical care at the Adelanto Detention Facility. Donate now to support his family!
Alfredo’s story as told here was relayed to New Voice Immigration Assistance Services by his wife, Karla. New Voice is sponsoring this fundraiser to support Alfredo’s family obtaining legal help to get him released from detention ASAP so he can receive proper medical care.
https://www.youcaring.com/karlaaranda-995846
Alfredo Aranda Holguin, 43 years old, entered the U.S. as a permanent resident and has made his home here since 1979. Alfredo is a husband, father, and son — all of his family members are U.S. Citizens. Alfredo had a heart attack last year and two of his older brothers have died of heart attacks. His mother is bedridden and relies on her son for support.
Before being detained, Alfredo was working for a storage company as a forklift operator and was the sole provider for his family. He has been in custody at the Adelanto detention center since August 4th of this year. Alfredo had been ordered by his primary care physician to start dialysis in March of this year.
Upon being detained at Adelanto, Alfredo was not given any of his medications or put on dialysis. Facility staff said that they could not give him medication without the facility doctor seeing him first. His wife Karla immediately faxed copies of the prescriptions that he had been prescribed by his doctor to the facility. But, when she followed up, the facility said that they threw out the faxed copies because they did not come from a physician’s office.
The facility transferred him to the ICU at St. Mary’s on approximately August 6 because his blood pressure was up to 220 and he was retaining a severe amount of water. He was at the hospital for approximately five days, during which he was not allowed to make any phone calls or receive visits. The facility did not notify Karla about his hospitalization so she did not find out until she called them. Around this time she began to speak out publicly with Univision and La Opinion reporters. Alfredo was then discharged prematurely from the hospital and transferred back to Adelanto, still with a very high blood pressure level of 215. Upon his return, he finally started receiving insulin. However, this insulin was different from the kind he was receiving pre-detention.
On August 16, Alfredo’s primary care physician faxed copies of prescriptions to the facility and spoke with a facility nurse about his concerns for Alfredo’s health and the need for him to return to their clinic to receive appropriate care.
On August 25, Alfredo told the Immigration Judge during his hearing that he was really sick and needed to be released from detention but the judge responded that there was nothing that she could do and that he should request medical attention at the facility if he needs it.
On or around August 28, Alfredo saw a physician at Adelanto for the first time. This doctor confirmed that Alfredo was very sick and that his kidney was not working, but said that he would have to refer him to a specialist and that this would take time.
Alfredo was still not receiving the ACE inhibitor medication or dialysis at this point.
On September 17, Karla went to see Alfredo and said Alfredo is even sicker now and cannot even wear socks because his ankles are so swollen. Alfredo has written a letter to ICE Supervisors and they’ve responded that they know that Alfredo is on the list of people needing critical medical care but that he is seeing a doctor every day (which was not true) and that he just needs to stick to his “diet” while in detention (Alfredo says he is given the same food as everyone else).
This first week of November, Karla got a call from another man detained at Adelanto with her husband who told her that Alfredo was again taken away by an ambulance, unconscious.
When Karla contacted ICE to express her concerns about her husband, the official responded to her, “if he dies, he dies, life goes on.”
Alfredo is once again in critical condition and hospitalized at St. Mary’s Hospital in the city of Apple Valley due to his deteriorating health condition that has worsened day by day because of the lack of medical attention provided at Adelanto. We are very desperate because he suffers from type 2 diabetes and needs insulin, suffers from hypertension, he has chronic kidney disease and his kidneys are functioning at 18%. Due to this, he has chronic renal problems in stage 3 that require dialysis treatment.
Please help us raise funds to cover the expenses of a lawyer who can represent him in immigration court. Any help will mean so much for our family as we keep up the hope of being reunited as a family!
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