Jun 20
2025
Feds seeking to deport sickle cell patient over theft
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U.S. immigration officials are seeking to deport to Venezuela a 20-year-old migrant living in Buffalo and suffering from sickle cell disease because he has been accused of shoplifting at the Walden Galleria Mall.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Investigative Post the charge of shoplifting “nullifies” Anderson Contreras-Hernandez’s legal status and, under the newly enacted Laken Riley Act, means he must be detained by immigration authorities. To date, he has not been convicted of any crime.
The spokesperson described Contreras-Hernandez as “amenable to deportation.” His attorneys, in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, have appealed to U.S. District Judge John Sinatra to prevent that from happening.
Contreras-Hernandez has been hospitalized for sickle cell complications since June 7. His doctor, Dr. Steven Ambrusko of Oishei Children’s Hospital, said his patient’s life is at risk should he be placed in an immigration detention facility.
According to the lawsuit, “Placement in any detention center would put Anderson in ‘direct risk of harm or death’ due to conditions and the inability to provide prompt medical care.”
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In an interview, Ambrusko said the risks Contreras-Hernandez faces include bouts of extreme pain that must be treated swiftly at a hospital and an enlarged spleen.
“If he were to take a hit to the abdomen, he could die from that,” Ambrusko told Investigative Post. “If he has a spleen rupture, he could die from that.”
Migrants previously detained at the ICE facility in Batavia told Investigative Post in February that fights between detainees and beatings by guards are common at the detention center. Those with medical concerns are often placed in solitary confinement.
Following his shoplifting charge, Contreras-Hernandez was taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection on June 7 and held for several hours in a makeshift detention facility at the border patrol station in the Town of Tonawanda. There, he experienced a flareup of his symptoms, his doctor said, and agents took him to Oishei Children’s Hospital, where he’s remained since.
Contreras-Hernandez, shopping at Macy’s at the Walden Galleria Mall June 6, was charged with stealing Lacoste underwear valued at $90, according to Cheektowaga police. One of his lawyers, Catherine Grainge, said she believes he’s innocent.
The police report, obtained via a records request, claims Contreras-Hernandez “did purchase other items but failed to pay” for the underwear. The report indicates that police have security footage of the incident.
A Customs and Border Protection agent guards his hospital room 24/7, waiting to detain him in the Town of Tonawanda or Batavia when he is discharged from the hospital.
Grainge said those guards have prevented her from seeing her client. She’s suing the Department of Homeland Security over that refusal as part of Contreras-Hernandez’s case.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomGrainge and the other lawyers, from Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, are also asking Sinatra to order Contreras-Hernandez released on humanitarian grounds.
“Because of his health situation it would be against notions of justice for him to be incarcerated at this time due to his medical fragility,” Grainge said.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said detainees “in custody receive the medical care they require.” He referred further questions to ICE, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Facing deportation over $90
Contreras-Hernandez turned 20 on June 9.
The Friday before, he went shopping for clothes for his birthday at the Walden Galleria Mall, Grainge, his lawyer, told Investigative Post. Upon leaving Macy’s, he was accused of shoplifting. The Cheektowaga police were called.
Up until that point, he had been in the United States legally, granted entry as an asylum seeker by the Biden administration last year. He and his family settled in Buffalo in the spring of 2024.
Contreras-Hernandez as a teenager in Venezuela.
According to Captain Jeffrey Schmidt, Contreras-Hernandez was taken to police headquarters and charged with one count of petit larceny, the charge for theft of property worth $200 or less. As a migrant, Contreras-Hernandez’ only identification was his work permit, which he showed to police.
After charging Contreras-Hernandez, police called U.S. Customs and Border Protection and then handed him over.
The Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said the shoplifting charge “nullifies his immigration status and makes him amenable to deportation.”
The spokesperson cited the Laken Riley Act, signed by President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January. That law requires immigration authorities to detain migrants charged with — but not necessarily convicted of — certain crimes, including theft. Under the law, those migrants can’t be released on bond.
Contreras-Hernandez now stands “charged with larceny and [being] in the country illegally,” the spokesperson said.
Advocates for migrants in New York have called the law “draconian” and “fascist,” arguing it strips undocumented immigrants of due process rights.
“This is the horrors of what the Laken Riley [Act] does,” said Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition.
“It’s incredibly unconscionable that a young man who’s battling a life-threatening illness like sickle cell is being put in this incredibly horrific position of mandatory detention risking his life.”
In an interview, Cheektowaga Supervisor Brian Nowak said the town does not have any formal cooperation agreements with immigration agencies and that he was seeking to learn more about Contreras-Hernandez’s arrest.
He said he has no problem with federal authorities deporting people convicted of violent crimes but that lower-level offenses ought to be treated differently.
“It seems like … the federal government is creating this quota program and just deporting anybody they can,” he said. “There’s no coherent immigration policy. Immigration has been broken for decades now.”
Risks from incarceration
Sickle cell patients, medical experts said, suffer from painful complications, described by some as feeling like shards of glass are flowing through their veins. Such bouts of pain can be induced by stress and cold temperatures.
Dr. Michael DeBaun, a physician and professor at Vanderbilt University, helped write the guidelines for how those with sickle cell disease should be cared for while incarcerated. One recommendation is ensuring a patient can be rushed to a hospital and assessed within an hour if they begin experiencing serious pain.
DeBaun has studied patients with sickle cell disease who have died in ICE custody. In an interview, he pointed to a 2023 case in which a young girl with sickle cell disease was detained by ICE in Texas along with her family. She experienced a complication four days after her detention, did not receive proper treatment and died three days after her symptoms appeared.
According to Ambrusko, Contreras-Hernandez grew up in poverty in Venezuela, often lacking enough food and proper medical care. Under better circumstances, the strain of sickle cell he inherited would normally cause milder complications.
“He has an even more severe [case of] sickle cell disease than would usually be expected,” Ambrusko said.
For example, Ambrusko said, he’s received 47 blood transfusions since his diagnosis at age 6. He’s also had part of a lung removed.
In part to seek better medical treatment for his disease, Contreras-Hernandez arrived in the United States with his family in early 2024.
Fighting for release
Contreras-Hernandez experienced a flareup after three hours of detention at the Town of Tonawanda Border Patrol station. Customs and Border Patrol agents, believing he was suffering a panic attack, took him to Oishei Children’s Hospital.
Contreras-Hernandez has been experiencing “significant pain,” Ambrusko said, along with issues related to his enlarged spleen. Treatment for his condition includes proper nutrition, proper hydration, a temperate, low-stress environment and pain medications, including opioids.
Contreras-Hernandez in Oishei Children’s Hospital.
Contreras-Hernandez’s prognosis is good, Ambrusko said, but he worries about future complications.
“He should hopefully be able to get over this episode, but is at risk for further episodes that could come anytime,” he said. “The thing with sickle cell disease is that it can be unpredictable.”
In the meantime, a Customs and Border Protection officer guards Contreras-Hernandez on the 11th floor of Oishei around the clock.
Kaleida Health spokesperson Jacqueline Bett said the hospital system must allow law enforcement to be present when a patient arrives in custody.
Bett and Ambrusko both stressed that the hospital has an obligation to ensure Contreras-Hernandez is properly cared for upon his release.
Ambrusko was adamant that he can’t ethically release Contreras-Hernandez from the hospital until he has assurances from federal agents that they will properly care for his patient. The best case scenario, he said, is that the immigration authorities release Contreras-Hernandez.
That’s the outcome Contreras-Hernandez wants, too, Grainge said. She described him as “really scared. He’s very frequently talking, sort of pleading, with me to prevent him from going into detention.”
