Michigan nurse charged after helping man escape ICE capture: report

A Michigan nurse faces federal charges after allegedly pulling an injured, undocumented immigrant's IV, walking him to a hospital exit, and letting him disappear while he was supposed to be under Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

According to a newly unsealed FBI complaint reported by The Guardian, 33-year-old Chloe Renae Freeman helped the man, identified only as "OBP" in court records, escape Trinity Health Ann Arbor in late May, roughly two hours after Border Patrol agents arrested him during a targeted enforcement operation. Agents say OBP, a Mexican national previously deported in 2022, tried to run when confronted, then fell and injured his face badly enough that paramedics recommended sending him to the hospital.

Once hospital staff realized OBP was in ICE custody, they brought him in for a CT scan. The FBI alleges Freeman then entered the scan room, disconnected his IV, and personally guided him toward the ambulance bay, where security footage captured him slipping out the door with a bloodied, bandaged face. He hasn't been located since.

Freeman reportedly told hospital investigators in June that she didn't believe in ICE's practice of tearing families apart, and that this belief was behind her decision to free him.

She also acknowledged that OBP's injuries were serious enough that he "could have died" without further treatment, according to the FBI's account of her interview.

Freeman turned herself in and appeared in federal court Tuesday, where she was released on a $10,000 bond. She faces a single federal misdemeanor charge of instigating or assisting an escape. Her attorneys declined to comment publicly.

Trinity Health confirmed to Reuters that Freeman no longer works at the hospital, but didn't respond to the Guardian's questions about how closely the hospital coordinated with federal investigators. The U.S. Attorney's Office for Michigan's Eastern District, which is prosecuting the case, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, and the Department of Homeland Security referred all questions to the Justice Department.

Freeman's case joins a growing list of prosecutions against people accused of obstructing ICE, as public backlash against the agency's aggressive enforcement tactics continues to build nationwide. While some charges brought against protesters and activists in similar cases have collapsed under legal scrutiny, the Trump administration has also notched real convictions in others.

One notable recent win was the conviction of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan in Wisconsin for attempting to help an immigrant evade federal agents at her courthouse.