$400,000: The “Free” Medical Care Kristi Noem’s Goons Made Taxpayers Pay
Back on August 27, Kristi Noem’s goons raided a car wash in Carson, CA. In the process, they badly broke Bayron Rovidio Marin’s leg. The break was so bad, he has been hospitalized ever since. And in spite of the fact that they’ve never obtained a warrant or even claimed that Rovidio Marin is undocumented, ICE has been paying private guards to guard him 24/7 since then.
On August 27, 2025, Petitioner was arrested at the Carson Car Wash in Carson, California by uniformed Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) officers and unidentified plainclothes federal agents. See Pet. ¶¶ 16, 48; Santiago Decl. ¶ 3. During the arrest, Petitioner sustained severe leg injuries. See Pet. ¶ 48; Santiago Decl. ¶ 5. He was handcuffed and transported by CBP to the emergency room at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Carson, California. Id.
At the hospital, Petitioner was admitted under a “blackout” procedure for patients in law-enforcement custody and was registered under the pseudonym “Har Maine UNK Thirteen.” Santiago Decl. ¶ 7. Federal agents remained at Petitioner’s bedside during admission, transfer to non-public treatment areas, and throughout his stay, keeping him handcuffed to his hospital bed. Id. ¶ 6
On or about August 27, 2025, CBP transferred custody of Petitioner to ICE. See Pet. ¶ 48. He remains detained at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center under the supervision of ICE, which has contracted with Spectrum Detention Services (“Spectrum”) to provide guards. See Santiago Decl. ¶ 8; Pet. ¶ 48.
Since that date, two to four uniformed guards—either Spectrum employees or ICE agents—have been continuously stationed in Petitioner’s hospital room, monitoring him at all times, including while he sleeps, eats, uses the restroom, or receives medical care. See Santiago Decl. ¶¶ 9–10. [my emphasis]
There’s a lot that’s outrageous about this unlawful detention: On top of the original injury, ICE hid this guy using fake names at the hospital, they’ve questioned him without reading him his rights, they’ve restricted his access to lawyers.
Judge Cynthia Valenzuela just ordered ICE to release him from “custody.”
But consider it from the context of right wing manufactured outrage that Democrats want to provide free medical care for “illegals,” a combination of misrepresentation that Democrats would provide healthcare for migrants with legal status, false accusations that those who rely on ACA subsidies are “illegal,” and complaints (voiced explicitly by JD Vance) that under EMTALA (which was passed under Ronald Reagan) hospital emergency rooms have to treat anyone in need of care.
Ignoring that ICE has not even claimed that the guy they hospitalized is undocumented, Kristi Noem’s goons have required taxpayers to pay for 37 days (and counting) of his medical care, plus private guards to watch him 24/7. The guards would cost upwards of $71,000 ($40 X 2 X 24 X 37), and just the room could cost upwards of $333,000 ($9,000 X 37). (ICE probably gets a discount on the room, but they still have to pay for his medical care.)
So just that one victim of ICE violence — someone against whom ICE had no warrant or even knowledge of his identity — may cost taxpayers upwards of $400,000.
And counting, because he’s still not out of the hospital.
Instead of paying for Medicaid and ACA subsidies to keep Americans healthy, right wingers in Congress decided to throw tons of money at Kristi Noem and Tom Homan (whose fondness for bags of cash gives him an incentive to drive up contractor cost) to go hunt down car wash workers who might or might not be undocumented.
And just one of the predictable injuries that resulted (there’s no telling how many other people abused by ICE Noem has hidden away under fake names) has cost taxpayers around $400,000.
Update: They’ve now unsealed Rovidio Marin’s habeas petition.
What was the reason to register this individual under the pseudonym “Har Maine UNK Thirteen”? To keep his family and friends from knowing about him or his whereabouts? To emotionally inflict stress, worry, and anxiety about his disappearance? THEN to pay armed guards 24/7 to watch over him?
The Trump Admin loves to waste money on THEIR pet projects. Didn’t Noem blow through her budget and that was one of the reasons why the Big Ugly Bill HAD to be passed?
UNK = unknown?
Thirteen = at least twelve others previous to that date? [8/27/25]
They wouldn’t necessarily be ICE victims – Harbor-UCLA is the major hospital for that area.
???
When I grew up in Torrance where “Harbor General Hospital” is located on the eastside, being the “LA county hospital” where folks with little or no health insurance went. Awhile ago, the hospital was rebranded as Harbor-UCLA Medical Center to get eliminate that stigma.
The westside hospitals (Torrance Memorial, Little Company of Mary, Prospect Hospital) is where folks with insurance went. All of these hospitals have now all been rebranded with names reflecting their corporate owners.
UNK etc..
possibly code for location, identity(unknown), and the assumption of MS-13?
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if we had literally any semblance of investigative journalism (in a country dominated/monopolized by corporate media) this would lead every nightly broadcast. thanks for covering it Marcy.
Kyle Cheney found it.
But it was only unsealed with the habeas order–petition filings are sealed. So it only just became public.
Amen to that, Will. Ridiculous that we have to read about this egregious violation of civil rights on a national security blog (not to diminish EW) but this is the world we live in. Not to mention the enormous costs to incarcerate one individual who may have broken no criminal laws. But I always tell my conservative friends that Republicans like Big Government as much as Democrats, they just like the most expensive and pernicious parts of government- like armies, prisons and law enforcement.
That’s one heck of a Kavanaugh-stop
From the document:
“He remains detained at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center under the supervision of ICE, which has contracted with Spectrum Detention Services (“Spectrum”) to provide guards.”
Spectrum piqued my interest. There is also a Spectrum Security Services, which shares an e-mail address with Spectrum Detention Services. And there are multiple Spectrum Health Systems (i.e. Detention; Corrections Division; Juvenile-Justice-Services) with security components.
So, of course, this made me think of DeVos, which made me think of Erik Prince. I don’t have any direct or specific evidence linking either DeVos or Prince to any of this. But, just as a refresher, there is this:
“The return of Erik Prince: How a notorious military contractor maneuvered his way back inside Trump’s orbit” | CNN Politics, 3/13/25
“Among Prince’s closest allies, sources said, are Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Prince served as a character witness for Gabbard, who spent weeks as one of the administration’s more controversial cabinet nominees based on concerns from some Republican senators about her qualifications.”
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/13/politics/erik-prince-return-maneuvered-inside-trump-orbit
Adding: Interestingly, illegal fishing is specifically mentioned in the CNN article in reference to a crackdown in Ecuador. So, now it doesn’t seem like a stretch to see how the Trump administration may be amenable to adapting this kind of argumentation (in addition to alleged drug trafficking) to create another corrupt justification to attack fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela.
From the CNN article:
[Erik] “Prince also appears to be getting involved in Ecuador’s security crackdown. President Daniel Noboa revealed in a March 11 post on Instagram that he met with the Blackwater founder to form a “strategic alliance” against narcoterrorism and illegal fishing. A day earlier, Noboa had announced the imminent arrival of “special forces from abroad” to tackle crime in Ecuador’s most violent areas, though he did not specify their origins.”
Exactly. There was some Spectrum chicanery in the first 47 regime; Erik is lurking somewhere. He loves this shit.
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Meanwhile, in Porland: “Richard Eckman, 84 and a Vietnam war veteran, and his wife Laurie Eckman, also 84, hold signs at the rally at Elizabeth Caruthers Park in South Portland before marching on to protest at the ICE facility a few blocks away. The Eckmans say federal officers rushed at them at the facility “for no apparent reason,” knocking the couple to the ground…” https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2025/10/federal-agents-knock-down-elderly-couple-during-portland-protest.html?gift=c318e8c3-aef2-4781-b0f1-99c5679f8ed5
Speaking of Homan:
“Military contractors linked to controversial Blackwater want civilian army and detention camps to run Trump’s deportation plans” – Alex Woodward, 2/25/25
“Temporary camps” inside U.S. Army facilities could be constructed “in less than one week,” and 2USV would supply the government with 49 planes for deportation flights, according to the proposal reviewed by Politico.
The proposal also calls for deputizing 10,000 private citizens — under the command of Trump’s border czar Tom Homan — and empowering them with the same authority as federal law enforcement officials.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/blackwater-erik-prince-trump-deportations-b2704468.html
Careful about too much credit to Reagan. Reagan signed EMTALA because his raids on Medicare funding earlier that decade had created the obviously class- and race-driven crisis EMTALA was meant to solve.
And I suspect the armed guards are part of a larger, cost-plus contract with minimum service usage, similar to how private prisons, like Core Civic (formerly CCA) demand a minimum number of prisoners or they charge DOJ extra.
EMTALA – the Emergency Medical Treatment And Labor Act was spurred on by horrific instances of dumping and reverse dumping where patients were turned away from emergency care after wallet biopsies came back negative.
Unfortunately it’s a complaint driven process – so, how good is everyone at self advocacy in the throes of a medical emergency?
Not included in that $400,000 taxpayer-funded “healthcare” and detention is the incredible personal cost on this individual and his family and friends, and society.
If there was a system of justice in this country where he could plead and win a verdict against the transgressors, this amount would be comparatively insignificant.
Just where do these clowns think some one with a broken leg is going to run? What a waste of money. Handcuffing him to the bed? There is no need for that, but of course if being cruel is the aim of the game, then I guess those ICE idiots think they are winning. Wierd though. Not enough money to feed children but enough to buy time from rent a cop services to break some one’s leg and not enable him to use the rights the American Constitution affords him.
Looks like Trump and his gang are trying real hard to turn the U.S.A. into something like a combo of Iran and China. The continued use of sending the military into cities and using force to the extreme is simply softening up the population for the new fascist government the people will have imposed on them. First they came for the Jews, but………. Yes eventually Hitler came for everyone who disagreed with him and his. In the U.S.A. its first they came for people who might be Latino. Next I expect they will come for people who are LGBTQ. They’ll get around to the Jews quick enough.
A bit off topic but with 2 hospitalized and this beginning to look like domestic terrorism:
https://time.com/7323442/south-carolina-judge-diane-goodstein-house-fire-trump-political-violence/
All the Goons are not necessarily employed by the government; stochastic dog whistles do tend to reach the ears of their intended target audience. While there is no ruling of arson at this time I am convinced.
The Felon Guy/Spokesperson – “So you rule against me? Nice house you got there >wink wink< – shame if something bad would happen…"
My reading of the government’s memo/filing/petition/whatever is that this guy has been in a regular hospital bed for over a month for a leg fracture. He may have had additional injuries or medical complications that extended his stay, but that’s still a LONG time for a leg fracture. If he’s been moved to a part of the facility that handles rehabilitation services (physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc.), then it would make much more sense, but that can typically be transferred to outpatient care fairly quickly. As a physician, I generally avoid Monday night quarterbacking, but one possibility is that he’s being held in the hospital without medical necessity and without informed consent, which would reflect really really badly on the hospital if it were exposed.
“but one possibility is that he’s being held in the hospital without medical necessity and without informed consent, which would reflect really really badly on the hospital if it were exposed.”
Have you heard of Huguette Clark?
Starting at 30 She Was “An Apparition” in https://www.factinate.com/people/facts-huguette-clark
There’s lots more on her when you search her.
I have known a couple of folks who wound up spending months in care due to major damage to legs where bone and tissue healing were inadequate. One finally lost the limb after multiple attempts to repair the damage failed and gangrene was setting in.
On subject of medicine and spending, hee-haw, turning Medicare into “Advantage”,
Washington state is among six states included in a prior authorization pilot program that begins on Jan. 1, 2026 for enrollees of traditional Medicare. Titled the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the program will apply prior authorization requirements to selected services, with artificial intelligence slated to play a role in utilization management.
https://wsma.org/Shared_Content/News/advocacy-report/2025/september-5/medicare-launching-ai-prior-authorization-pilot-program