Nurse charged with helping man in hospital escape from ICE custody

The federal government is charging a Michigan nurse accused of illegally helping an undocumented immigrant, who was being treated in a hospital, escape from immigration officials, court records unsealed this week show.

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.

This is one of the latest examples of people facing charges for anti-ICE actions, as the agency and its aggressive anti-immigrant crackdown grow widely unpopular.

In some cases, charges against protesters and anti-ICE advocates have fallen apart under scrutiny. But in others, the Trump administration has been successful in prosecuting activists.

Freeman had voluntarily surrendered to the authorities and had her first hearing in federal court on Tuesday. She was released on a $10,000 bond. Attorneys representing Freeman told the Guardian they were not making any public statements at the time.

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.

An image included in the court records shows security camera images of OBP leaving through the ambulance bay doors, with a bandaged and bloody face.

The FBI says Freeman’s actions were “knowingly and willfully” taken to help OBP in “escaping the hospital without permission or authority”, the court document says.

“Law enforcement have been unable to locate OBP since his escape from Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital,” the document adds.

In June, hospital investigators interviewed Freeman, who admitted to letting OBP leave the hospital. She told the investigators that she did not believe in ICE “separating people from their families” and admitted that, due to his injuries, he “could have died”, the FBI complaint says.

It is unclear if the hospital investigators approached the FBI with their evidence or the extent of the collaboration between the two.

In a statement to Reuters, Trinity ​Health said ⁠Freeman no longer worked for the hospital. Trinity Health did not respond to a request from the Guardian about the extent of its work with the FBI in this case.

The US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Michigan, where Freeman’s case is being prosecuted did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE and border patrol, referred all questions to the justice department.