CHARLOTTE — A 27-year-old father who was detained by ICE during Operation Charlotte’s Web was told to sign volunteer deportation papers to receive dialysis.
Williams Toro Enamorado was headed to his dialysis appointment in November when he was taken by ICE as a part of Operation Charlotte’s Web.
His attorney, Jeff McKinney, said Enamorado’s residency was pending. He had a valid work permit and driver’s license.
“He’s transported to a van, transported to Georgia,” McKinney said.
Enamorado is from Honduras. He needs dialysis three times a week to survive.
But while he was at a detention facility in Georgia, he said he was given an ultimatum. He was told that if he did not sign volunteer deportation papers, he would not receive dialysis.
“There is no reason at all why the U.S. government should have put this man’s life at risk,” McKinney said.
But Enamorado was terrified, so he signed them.
“I kept trying to reach out to ICE to say, ‘Hey, he has an attorney. Anything he signed needs to be rescinded,’” McKinney said.
The volunteer deportation order was ultimately rescinded, and Enamorado was given dialysis in custody as his case continued for months.
In a statement, ICE called Enamorado “a criminal illegal alien” and said that “Any allegation that ICE intentionally withheld treatment to pressure him into a voluntary departure is FALSE.”
But Enamorado insists that’s what happened. And McKinney pushed back on his client being labeled a criminal.
“It was just all this, these lies,” McKinney said. “Unbelievable.”
Enamorado is back home with is family and has been granted residential status in the U.S. And in five years, if he wants, he can apply for citizenship.
But for now, he said his focus is on finding a kidney transplant to save his life.
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