Man ICE shot in Glen Burnie has experienced medical neglect in custody, his attorney says

The Portuguese immigrant shot and wounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Glen Burnie on Christmas Eve has experienced medical neglect while in federal custody, one of his attorneys said.

Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a 30-year-old Baltimore resident whom federal immigration officials have accused of overstaying his visa, suffered a collapsed lung after being shot in the upper right part of his back and left thigh, according to court records.

At different detention facilities after his arrest, Sousa-Martins was denied a breathing apparatus recommended by doctors, basic medications to treat his gunshot injuries and bandage changes, one of his immigration attorneys, Alice N. Barrett of the immigrant advocacy group We Are CASA, said in an interview Saturday with The Banner.

She also spoke to the tumult Sousa-Martins’ detention has had on his two young children, who don’t know where their dad is or why he disappeared the day before the family was to spend Christmas together.

Barrett said Sousa-Martins’ legal team hopes “for a resolution that can help bring him and his family back together and really help secure justice for them after everything they’ve been through.”

“His health is our main concern at this time,” Barrett said.

The allegations about the failure to provide Sousa-Martins treatment follow reports of measles outbreaks in ICE detention facilities, a lack of care for pregnant women in the immigration agency’s custody and the temporary shutdown of a holding facility in Baltimore because of what were described as deplorable conditions.

The Department of Homeland Security, which encompasses ICE, issued a statement Saturday to The Banner saying Sousa-Martins had access to medical care as needed throughout his time in its custody. In response to previous reports of poor care, an agency medical officer said, “This is better, more responsive healthcare than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives.”

The Maryland agency that runs a federal detention facility in Baltimore where Sousa-Martins is currently being held declined to comment on his care, citing privacy laws, but said it is committed to providing quality care to those in its custody.

Barrett said Sousa-Martins’ treatment in custody after being shot by agents, who claimed he was trying to run them over in a condominium complex in Glen Burnie, underscores a need for immigration enforcement and detention reform.

We Are CASA’s hotline regularly receives reports alleging immigration agents have resorted to “brutality” during arrests, such as smashing car windows, dragging people “out of vehicles sometimes with children who are in the back watching,” hurling racial slurs and beating people who are already detained, Barrett said. At the same time, Sousa-Martins is one of many people facing “urgent health risks” while in ICE custody.

“The type of medical neglect that we’ve seen in this situation calls for accountability,” Barrett said.

NBC Washington was first to report on Sousa-Martins allegations.

Sousa-Martins’ saga began Dec. 24 when ICE agents encountered his work van outside a Lowe’s in Glen Burnie, court records show. The agents ran the vehicle’s tags, determined he had overstayed his visa and followed him to a residential neighborhood, where they boxed his van in with their vehicles.

The encounter quickly escalated, with immigration agents smashing his window and Sousa-Martins attempting to flee in his van down a narrow path between condominiums, according to court records. It culminated with three agents shooting Sousa-Martins before his van crashed into a tree behind the homes.

Immigration officers told an FBI agent that Sousa-Martins rammed their vehicles with his van and attempted to run them over, forcing them to open fire defensively, striking Sousa-Martins twice. Sousa-Martins told the same agent, Sean O’Rourke, he was trying to get away from the agents, fearing he would be shot.

Federal prosecutors charged Sousa-Martins with two misdemeanor crimes: resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating or interfering with officers, and damaging government property.

Questions quickly surfaced around ICE’s account of the shooting because the agency originally claimed another person, Salvadoran immigrant Salomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, was in the van with Sousa-Martins despite evidence to the contrary. The agency eventually admitted Serrano-Esquivel was in an agent’s vehicle during the pursuit and shooting, having been arrested hours earlier in Southern Maryland.

The Maryland Federal Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Sousa-Martins in his criminal case, did not respond to a request for comment.

Medics rushed Sousa-Martins from the shooting scene to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Barrett said he remained there for about a week, until he was discharged around Jan. 1.

He was eventually taken to ICE’s Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia. At the detention facility, Sousa-Martins received care that “at least met some of his basic needs,” Barrett said. Medical staff administered anti-inflammatory and pain management medication.

He was not, however, given the small breathing apparatus doctors at Shock Trauma recommended upon his discharge, Barrett said.

Sousa-Martins remained at the Virginia detention facility until approximately Jan. 16, the date he was charged with two federal misdemeanor offenses in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

ICE denied Sousa-Martins a follow-up appointment at Shock Trauma prescribed by the doctors who treated him there, Barrett said.

When authorities transferred him to Baltimore to face federal charges, Barrett said, they confiscated his medications at ICE’s holding facility in the George H. Fallon Federal Building, which has come under intense scrutiny because of the conditions of immigrants held there.

After he was federally charged, Sousa-Martins was transferred to the Chesapeake Detention Facility in Baltimore. That facility is run by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which has an agreement with the federal government to hold detainees awaiting trial in federal court.

Sousa-Martins endured days at the Baltimore detention facility “without any kind of basic care needs met while he was recovering from gunshot wounds,” Barrett said, explaining that the facility staff neglected to change his bandages or provide him medication.

It took “significant advocacy both by him and his legal team” for Sousa-Martins to receive fresh bandages and basic medication such as a muscle relaxant and Tylenol, Barrett said.

Tylenol failed to ease the pain from his gunshot wounds and a muscle relaxant left Sousa-Martins feeling weak with blurred vision, Barrett said.

A spokesperson for the state correctional services agency, Keith Martucci, said it could not comment on an individual’s medical care.

“However, the Department remains firmly committed to the health, safety, and well-being of every individual in our custody; why our medical partner works diligently to ensure that incarcerated individuals receive timely medical attention and – when appropriate – the same treatment and support they received before their incarceration," Martucci said in an email.

Like his legal team, Sousa-Martins’ family is primarily concerned about his health, according to Barrett.

Court records show Sousa-Martins came to America as a child to visit his father, who told him he would not be returning to Portugal. He spent his adolescence in Newark, New Jersey, before coming to Baltimore, where he purchased a house and began the process of becoming an American citizen.

In Baltimore, he has a partner and two children, who have celebrated their first and fourth birthdays while he’s been in federal custody.

Sousa-Martins’ partner, who his lawyers said asked that her name not be shared to protect the family’s privacy, chose not to tell the children what happened to their father.

“They have the understanding that their father is on a trip,” Barrett said. “But they cry for him a lot. It certainly doesn’t help that it was at a time when they otherwise would’ve been unwrapping presents with him.”

With the family’s provider in custody, Sousa-Martins’ partner has been left to figure out how to make ends meet, Barrett said. His partner had to stop working to care for the children full time and has had to find assistance, “including pediatric attention for some of the emotional and physical manifestations of his absence.”

Sousa-Martins, she said, is fighting for his health from behind bars and is “truly worried about whether he’ll be ever able to carry his infant again.”