A Friday morning landscaping shift devolved into a bloodbath when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents violently took down 63-year-old Pedro Mendoza Chávez, leaving him with a severe head wound. His terrified wife, Ruvelina Vega, was forced to watch her battered husband get loaded into an ambulance while federal agents stonewalled her, initially refusing to let her see him or disclose his location.For agonizing hours, Mendoza Chávez’s family was trapped in a nightmare of uncertainty, having no idea where he had been taken or if he would even survive his injuries. The silence was finally broken when Mendoza Chávez managed to contact his wife later that day, revealing that medical staff had merely stapled his cracked scalp together before quickly discharging him. He is currently locked inside an ICE detention center in Austin, still suffering from immense head pain.According to his family, the elderly man was brutalized over nothing. Mendoza Chávez explained that while he initially ran from the pursuing agents, he had completely surrendered and stopped. That is when an ICE agent allegedly delivered a vicious kick to the 63-year-old’s leg, violently sweeping him to the concrete. The sheer force of the takedown caused the man’s head to burst open upon impact.“I don’t know if it’s serious or not serious,” a sobbing Vega stated during the terrifying hours before he called, reflecting on the horror of being kept in the dark. This cruel separation treated a man just trying to earn his daily bread worse than a violent offender. “They treat them like they were criminals when the person doesn’t even mess with a fly,” Vega lamented.Unsurprisingly, the Department of Homeland Security immediately went on the defensive, pushing a narrative to justify the savage beatdown. The agency claimed the 63-year-old turned and “tried to attack” the arresting officer, and that the agent simply “resorted to his training to control the situation” without drawing a weapon. To further justify the extreme force, ICE alleged Mendoza Chávez has a criminal record involving terroristic threats, assault causing injury, and resisting a search.Despite the government’s official spin, a 63-year-old man remains in agonizing pain, locked away in an Austin detention center with metal staples holding his head together, CSP.References & Further Information:Noticias Telemundo: Esposa de mexicano herido durante detención de ICE denunciaRep. Joaquin Castro’s Office: Pedro Mendoza Chavez was caught up in ICE’s dragnet in San AntonioRep. Joaquin Castro (Facebook Update): Statement and Footage of the San Antonio ICE OperationShare