David Cardenas was detained in Charlotte last week, but was hospitalized due to severe medical issues and blocked from seeing his family.
After a week in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, hospitalization, and separation from his wife and children, a Raleigh man who has lived in the United States for three years is in the process of being released from ICE custody.
David Cardenas, 54, was detained by ICE agents during his family’s annual check-in with US Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) last week. The Charlotte Observer reported he suffered a “medical emergency” shortly after being detained and was taken to Atrium Health in Pineville. ICE and Atrium then refused to allow visits from his wife, Cecilia, and his children for a week.
Cardenas and his family fled Nicaragua and arrived in the US in 2022 after the government reportedly threatened to close their jewelry business. The family requested asylum upon arrival in the US and were allowed to remain in the country while their request was reviewed. As a condition of their right to reside in the US pending their asylum claim, Cardenas was granted a conditional work permit and was required to attend a yearly check-in with USCIS.
Cardenas dutifully attended these appointments and had never run into issues in prior years. But last week, he was detained after showing up for his appointment.
On Thursday morning, advocates with the immigrant rights group Siembra NC, North Carolina pastors, and local elected leaders held a press conference outside of Atrium Health in Pineville on behalf of Cardenas and his family.
Speakers planned to demand that they and Cecilia have a line of communication and visitation rights with Cardenas. But during his opening remarks, Siembra NC organizing manager Hector Rivera announced that Atrium Health had finally helped facilitate communication between the couple.
Additionally, Rivera said that ICE was in the process of releasing Cardenas from its custody due to his health.
“They are waiting for approval from Washington’s field office to allow for him to be released because of the severe health condition that he has,” Rivera said.
In an email to Cardinal & Pine, Siembra says Cardenas will undergo heart surgery at Atrium. However, Cardenas has reportedly refused to proceed with the operation without seeing his wife.
“He refused to move forward with the surgery without his wife there. So we hope we can get her here tomorrow,” Jessica Villatoro, Siembra NC’s Mecklenburg County Organizer, said on Thursday.
ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams told The Charlotte Observer that Cardenas could be given an ankle monitor moving forward.
“He’ll be on alternative detention, like an ankle monitor or whatever other device, and he’ll have to do check-ins with us at whatever specified time,” she said.
Pastors and elected officials say they were denied access
Faith leaders and local elected officials also attempted to meet with Cardenas this week, but said ICE and Atrium Health prevented them from seeing him.
“Yesterday, I and other clergy came to visit David at his wife’s request, and we were told that no patient existed,” Rev. Joel Simpson of First United Methodist Church in Taylorsville said on Thursday.
From a spiritual standpoint, Simpson says he is led by his faith to meet with those imprisoned and sick, like Cardenas.
“As part of my faith tradition, part of David’s faith tradition, we visit people who are sick, people who are imprisoned, and he was denied those visits,” he said.
In a statement provided to Cardinal & Pine, Atrium Health says that when an admitted patient is in the custody of law enforcement, they are admitted under an alias.
“It is a standard procedure that patients who are in our care and are under arrest or from correctional facilities are registered under an alias in our system,” Atrium said.
Visitation and contact decisions are also made entirely by the law enforcement agencies involved in such cases, Atrium said.
Siembra also noted in an email sent out on Wednesday that Cardenas was not registered on the ICE Online Detainee Locator System.
Mecklenburg County Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell, who was among those denied the ability to meet with Cardenas, expressed her frustration with how he was treated by immigration officials.
“This is not humane, to treat people in the way that Mr. Cardenas has been treated,” she said.
Rodriguez-McDowell hopes Cardenas’ case leads to a change in policy on how ICE treats people in its custody.
“We hope that this is a new day for people who are detained by ICE, and for anyone who is suffering under this kind of treatment…I’m grateful to Atrium today for whatever part that they played in this.”
“This is the best possible outcome that we could have asked for,” Rodriguez-McDowell added.
