Advocates demand answers after ICE agents allegedly tase, detain Providence man
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer coordinates with other officials during an enforcement operation in San Antonio, Texas, on Feb. 5, 2025. (Photo by ICE)
Immigration rights advocates plan to gather outside the federal building and courthouse in downtown Providence at noon Sunday to protest the Trump administration's mass deportation policies.
The demonstration follows the detention of a man who was hospitalized Thursday after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who came to his Providence home. Officers allegedly used a stun gun and the unnamed man appeared to have a medical episode and was taken to Rhode Island Hospital for treatment, said Maya Lehrer, an organizer with the Rhode Island Deportation Defense Coalition.
A crowd of 85 people protested outside Rhode Island Hospital for over three hours. The coalition says an attorney for the man was denied entrance to see him.
'Deportations are not new to Trump,' Lehrer said Friday. 'But this particular kind of fearmongering and extreme racism has come along with it, and ICE feels empowered to do whatever they have to outside the legal means to seize our community members.'
Lehrer said the coalition received a call around 11:08 a.m. Thursday reporting that a man was being detained by ICE agents at his home on Parade Street. At some point, officers used a stun gun and the unnamed man suffered a medical episode.
City spokesperson Josh Estrella confirmed the Providence Fire Department responded to a call for service on Parade Street for a person who had been tased, but said officials are unaware of any details of the investigation by any federal agency.
Providence Police were not involved in the detainment, as Mayor Brett Smiley's administration has made it clear that city officers will not act as immigration agents.
'We're never going to collaborate, and we're never going to interfere,' Estrella said.
ICE did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Among the demonstrators gathered outside the hospital Thursday afternoon, was Providence City Council Chief of Staff June Rose, who attended on behalf of Council President Rachel Miller, whose ward includes the address where the man was detained by ICE.
'This community will not stand idly by as the Trump administration disappears our neighbors off the street,' Rose said in an interview Friday. 'ICE shouldn't be in our city at all.'
Shortly after the man arrived at Rhode Island Hospital, Central Falls-based immigration attorney Kelvin Santos said he was contacted to represent him. However, Santos said he was denied the opportunity to meet with his client, despite the man having signed a form confirming Santos as his legal representative.
'ICE wasn't allowing us to go and see him and the hospital wasn't trying to supersede what ICE was saying,' he said.
Brown University Health spokesperson Kelly Brennan declined to comment on the case, citing patient privacy.
'Rhode Island Hospital is committed to providing care to all our patients,' Brennan said in an emailed statement. 'We follow the same protocols for all patients, including those concerning patient rights and access.'
Lehrer said multiple demonstrators had called ICE and claimed federal officials 'seemed alarmed' when told that the man was denied his legal right to counsel.
Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos issued a statement Thursday evening saying she and her office were 'closely monitoring' the situation and called on ICE to immediately allow the man they detained to speak with his attorney.
'The rights enshrined in our Constitution, especially the right to due process, are our only safeguard against authoritarianism,' Matos said. 'If we do not immediately and vocally protect the first people to be stripped of those rights, then eventually all people will be stripped of those rights.'
Thursday's demonstration wrapped up around 4 p.m., the same time Rose said the man was discharged by the hospital. He now remains in ICE custody, but Santos said his client's whereabouts are unknown.
'It's in limbo right now,' Santos said. 'We're going to do our best to get in contact with him.'
The coalition claimed the man was taken in an unmarked van being driven by officers from the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls. But Wyatt officer Jim Louis told Rhode Island Current that no vans from the facility were dispatched to Rhode Island Hospital on Thursday.
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