Pages

Monday, February 02, 2026

This is sickening. It is proof of how loose Greg Bovino ran things. Unless, of course, this is the type of outcome Bovino wanted.

 We hope there will be email or other communication uncovered to prove Bovino was not a passive idiot, but rather a key "policy" voice in how his stormtroopers acted.

PiPress: https://www.twincities.com/2026/01/30/takeaways-from-ap-report-on-ice-claims-that-immigrant-shattered-his-skull-running-into-wall/ 

Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initially claimed Alberto Castañeda Mondragón had tried to flee while handcuffed and “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” according to court documents filed by a lawyer seeking his release.

But staff members at Hennepin County Medical Center determined that could not possibly account for the fractures and bleeding throughout the 31-year-old’s brain, said three nurses familiar with the case.

“It was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,” said one of the nurses, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss patient care. “There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.”

The explanation from ICE is an example of recent run-ins between immigration officers and health care workers that have contributed to mounting friction at Minneapolis hospitals. Workers at the Hennepin County facility say ICE officers have restrained patients in defiance of hospital rules and stayed at their sides for days. The agents have also lingered around the campus and pressed people for proof of citizenship.

Since the start of Operation Metro Surge, President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, ICE officers have become such a fixture at the hospital that administrators issued new protocols for how employees should engage with them. Some employees complain that they have been intimidated to the point that they avoid crossing paths with agents while at work and use encrypted communications to guard against any electronic eavesdropping.

Similar operations have been carried out by federal agents in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities, where opponents have criticized what they say are overly aggressive tactics. It’s not clear how many people have required hospital care while in detention.

And, after the unbelievable ICE bullshitting, the stone wall - 

The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries. A deportation officer skirted the issue in the court documents, saying that during the intake process at an ICE detention center, it was determined he “had a head injury that required emergency medical treatment.”

Gregorio Castañeda Mondragón said his older brother is from Veracruz, Mexico, and worked as a roofer. He has a 10-year-old daughter living in his hometown he helps support.

According to his lawyers, Alberto Castañeda Mondragón entered the U.S. in 2022 with valid immigration documents. Minnesota incorporation filings show he founded a company called Castañeda Construction the following year with an address listed in St. Paul.

He appears to have no criminal record.

Greg Bovino's and Stephen Miller's correspondence needs  investigation. There can be no doubt of that. Between those two, protocols were alleged to have existed. That's could well be a Miler cooked fiction, with the "protocol" being make examples - get it done, quick and brutal.

This is all super fucked. Our government. Against us. For now profiling on skin darkness and accent, later - no profile needed? 

 

 

 

 

Pro Publica: "The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez."

 https://www.propublica.org/article/alex-pretti-shooting-cbp-agents-identified-jesus-ochoa-raymundo-gutierrez

Yes, a proper and decent U.S. of A, federal government would have identified these two from the start, but we ain't got that, so ProPublica had to out them.

From the tail end of the PP story:

Note from the editors:

ProPublica is publishing the names of the two federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. We believe there are few investigations that deserve more sunlight and public scrutiny than this one, in which two masked agents fired 10 shots at Pretti as he lay on the ground after being pepper-sprayed. 

The Department of Justice said it is investigating the incident, but the names of the two agents have been withheld from Congress and from state and local law enforcement.

The policy of shielding officers’ identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols, according to lawmakers, state attorneys general and former federal officials. Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.

Silence, by Trump and Miller, is not golden. It is indicative of something to hide.

What, how bad is the truth to these people? We await truth to unwind. And, given the hiding of truth, it has to be as bad as it gets; Prove me wrong!

(That "Prove me wrong" was not good for Charlie Kirk, but I used it anyway, hoping I fare better. Even a stay in the Wipple Building beats how Kirk met his end.)

The PP story from that link is there for any interested reader. No excerpt here.

A hat tip to EmptyWheel, where Crabgrass first learned of perp ID.  

Likely more shoes are set to drop, so the ongoing story will be the real truth, hopefully, and it will not be another stone wall where we infer and speculate.

The focus here revolves around the FBI now allegedly investigating and not hiding the ball. We'll see, but Crabgrass believes Pam Bondi would have preferred a deeply buried truth, which under Patel could happen, but at any rate it appears Congress critters blasted Bondi off the dime to stage something like truth seeking, (if done for not her and her DOJ munchkins), then at least done for a people hungry for and deserving more than being treated like proverbial mushrooms.

https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-01-26-raskin-et-al-to-bondi-doj-re-good-and-pretti-investigations_0.pdf

That is the five page letter from House members to Bondi, shaming her will to mushroom anyone and everyone. Pdf documents are difficult to cut/paste into hypertext, so no excerpt is given, but the letter is short and with a J'Accuse, flavor, so follow the link to the original, and see if you agree with Crabgrass that without that swift kick in ass Bondi would have done zippo for the public trust. (Just as her boss would have preferred things.)

And of course the Minnesota BCA investigative unit doing the job would have generated more trust than Kash Patel will ever be worth, nonetheless, it is the FBI Bondi tasked with "finding truth" and we wait to see.

At least now the three murdering perps have been identified in the Good and Pretti cold blooded killings, so even if the feds lie down and play dead, the murderous conduct was in Minneapolis, and local authorities will, sooner or later, prosecute.

Murder has no statute of limitations, and Minnesota convictions are immune to Trump's thugish pardon power. Nail them here, and prove the legal system works.

UPDATE: The EmptyWheel link in turn links to additional Bluesky content.