Nurse Charged With Helping Man in Hospital Escape From ICE Custody

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An FBI agent’s declaration submitted in a federal court accuses Chloe Renae Freeman, 33, of “instigating or assisting escape”, a federal misdemeanor, by helping a patient leave an Ann Arbor hospital while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in May. The patient, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, had been arrested about two hours earlier by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) border patrol agents.

Freeman, who worked at the hospital at the time, told hospital investigators she did not agree with federal immigration officials “separating people from their families” and that she “was going to set him free”, the FBI complaint says. The undocumented man had still not been caught by the time she was charged in August.

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On 28 May, border patrol encountered an undocumented Mexican man in Ann Arbor during a “targeted immigration enforcement operation”, the FBI complaint says. The man, identified only as “OBP” in the court records, had been previously removed from the US in 2022 and appears to have re-entered the country without permission, according to the authorities, which is a federal infraction.

When agents attempted to arrest OBP, he took off running, tripped over a curb and hit his face on the pavement, the complaint says. Agents arrested OBP, noticed his injuries and called for an ambulance. EMS workers recommended he be taken to a hospital to treat his injuries.

While at Trinity Health Ann Arbor hospital, where Freeman worked, medical staff noticed in his paperwork he was in ICE custody. They took him to receive a CT scan for his injuries. After the CT scan, the FBI said Freeman entered the CT scan room, removed the patient’s intravenous drip and guided him to the ambulance entrance, from which he fled.

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