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A kidney transplant recipient from Minnesota now in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Texas is finally getting some of the his life-saving medications he needs to prevent his body from rejecting the donated kidney, according to the man’s wife and his attorney. But they say federal authorities still are not giving him the correct dosage and full regimen of the medications.

Javier Abreu-Vasquez was arrested by immigration agents in Rochester on Thursday while he was delivering groceries as part of a local mutual aid group through his church. He was taken without his medications to the Whipple Federal Building near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where he was held until being flown to a federal detention center in Texas Friday.

Since then, MPR News has been given conflicting information about whether Abreu-Vasquez was getting the daily anti-rejection pills he needs. The Department of Homeland Security said late Friday that ICE is aware of the man’s recent kidney transplant, that the family gave authorities the medications and that ICE was working to ensure he gets them. But his wife told MPR News on Sunday that Abreu-Vasquez told her by phone that he hadn’t received them Saturday or Sunday morning. She’s not sure if he got his pills on Thursday or Friday.

Abreu-Vasquez’s wife, Carolina Rosario De Abreu, told MPR News on Monday that she talked to him again by phone, and he told her that he finally got a dose of medication late Sunday, but that federal authorities have not been giving him his medication at the correct time and they are missing doses. She said he normally takes the medication twice per day to prevent his body from rejecting the donated kidney, and that going without them could be life-threatening.

Rosario de Abreu also said her husband told her that other detainees are also being denied medications and that he feels weak due to lack of food in the detention center.

Abreu-Vasquez’s attorney, David Wilson, confirmed that he has been given some of his medications and said federal authorities took Abreau-Vasquez to see a doctor in El Paso, Tex, where is being detained. 

“He may have a limited supply of medication,” Wilson told MPR News Monday afternoon. “The biggest challenge we're having now is the schedule is wrong. So the timing of when he gets the meds is off.”

Wilson said that he is working with doctors at Mayo Clinic, where Abreu-Vasquez received his kidney transplant in July 2023, to inform ICE officials of the need for Abreu-Vasquez to get his medications in the correct dosage at the right times each day.

“We're working with Mayo to try to have them articulate very clearly, ‘this is the schedule you have to follow,’ because of his condition and the recency of it, his body is not going to be tolerant of a lot of changes at this point,” said Wilson.

Wilson said that ICE officials appear to be listening to their concerns, which he notes is rare these days.

“They are at least being responsive on this one. I think that they recognize that this is not your run of the mill medical condition,” Wilson said. “That doesn't necessarily mean they're responding to it or acting on immediately, but they're at least listening. In this current climate, that's a win. We'll take listening any day.”

Asked Sunday and Monday why Abreu-Vasquez hadn’t received his full medication dosage yet, the Department of Homeland Security just resent the same statement it provided late Friday.

“ICE is aware of his recent kidney transplant, and his family sent the medications and medical documentation. ICE is working with the family to ensure he gets all of his needed medications,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement.

“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” McLaughlin’s statement continued. “This is the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives.”

In the statement, McLaughlin described Abreu-Vasquez as “an illegal alien” from the Dominican Republic.

But Wilson said Abreu-Vasquez entered the country legally on a visa, and had been working through the process to remain in the country legally when that visa expired.

Wilson said a bond hearing is scheduled for Abreu-Vasquez before an immigration judge Friday morning at 10:00 CT. He and Rosario De Abreu are hoping he may be released then or soon after.

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Javier Abreu-Vasquez, a kidney transplant recipient, was arrested by ICE in Rochester last week without his anti-rejection medication and he may have gone for days without receiving it. His wife and his attorney say he is getting meds now, but irregularly, and his care team at Mayo Clinic worry about the potential harm to his health.

Kidney transplant recipient in ICE custody is finally getting meds, wife and attorney say

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