An Arlington man who says federal immigration officers shocked him with a conducted-energy weapon and struck him with a vehicle as he walked to a bus stop has filed a $35 million claim against the United States, alleging the encounter left him with a traumatic brain injury and unable to work. The Federal Tort Claims Act claim was filed Tuesday, Oct. 6, on behalf of Jose Mejia Hernandez with the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by attorney Denisse O. Gastélum of Gastélum Law, a Long Beach, Calif., firm.

The claim centers on an Aug. 11 encounter in the parking area of an apartment complex near Columbia Pike and South Courthouse Road, a short drive from Falls Church. None of its allegations have been tested in court, and DHS has publicly disputed Mejia Hernandez’s account.

According to the claim, Mejia Hernandez left his Arlington home at about 6:15 a.m. and was walking to a bus stop on his way to work. His attorneys describe him as a 4-foot-11, 120-pound man who was alone, unarmed and committing no crime. He was not the subject of a judicial warrant, and no removal order had been entered against him, the filing says.

The officers who approached him were masked, in plain clothes and driving unmarked civilian vehicles, according to the claim, and did not identify themselves in any way he could recognize before they moved on him. Mejia Hernandez says he was hit from behind with a conducted-energy weapon. Witnesses cited in the filing report he was then struck by a vehicle driven by one of the officers.

Eyewitness video recorded shortly afterward shows Mejia Hernandez on the ground beside a government vehicle, his face covered in blood, according to the filing. He suffered blunt-force trauma to his head and upper body and was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury that included bleeding and swelling in the brain, his attorneys say.

DHS tells a very different story. In statements quoted in the claim, the agency called Mejia Hernandez’s account “FALSE” and said officers “rendered aid.” DHS said he “attempted to flee from the scene, requiring ICE to use necessary force to gain control of the situation,” and was taken to a hospital “out of precaution.” The claim counters that the government has not publicly identified any officer involved, produced an incident report or explained how Mejia Hernandez ended up bleeding inside his skull.

The allegations do not stop at the scene. His attorneys say the eyewitness video shows officers pouring bottled water over his bloodied face, then lifting him off the pavement by his arms and torso into a seated position rather than keeping him still until emergency crews arrived. Moving someone with a suspected head, neck or spinal injury that way risked turning a survivable injury into a permanent one, the filing argues.

At the hospital, the account gets stranger. A former hospital employee told his attorneys that Mejia Hernandez asked to see the witness because he believed he was dying. When the witness arrived, Mejia Hernandez was on the floor, bleeding and visibly unwell, with federal officers in the room, and the officers said he was on the floor because it was cooler there, according to the claim.

After the witness insisted he be moved, the officers said they were helping Mejia Hernandez with an asylum matter he wanted to discuss with them. Mejia Hernandez speaks and reads Spanish, and the witness, finding the situation irregular, asked that an interpreter be provided and that any conversation be recorded. His attorneys say that exchange does not appear in any hospital records produced so far.

For more than two weeks, no law enforcement agency investigated what happened to him, according to the filing. That changed Aug. 28, when Mejia Hernandez went to Arlington County Police Department headquarters himself and filed a criminal incident report as a crime victim. On Sept. 4, Arlington police confirmed they had opened a criminal investigation into the conduct of the federal officers involved.

The offenses presented to police include aggravated malicious wounding, malicious wounding, failure of a driver in an injury accident to stop and render assistance, reckless driving and assault and battery. That investigation remains open, according to the claim.

The injuries described in the filing are severe. Medical records cited in the claim show a traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness, including a subarachnoid hemorrhage and a hemorrhagic contusion with surrounding swelling, along with injuries to his head, face, neck, back and hip. He was treated at three hospitals between Aug. 11 and Aug. 20, including Inova Fairfax Hospital’s Trauma Acute Care Surgery service, and went home in a cervical collar on antiseizure and narcotic pain medication.

He remains under a neurosurgeon’s care, according to the filing. A cervical spine MRI to check for a suspected ligament injury is still outstanding, and the full extent of his injuries, including any lasting cognitive damage, has not been determined.

Nearly two months later, the claim says, he routinely cannot remember what he did from one day to the next. He has headaches that last all day, wakes two or three times a night in fear and leaves home only for medical appointments, usually asking someone to go with him. He is in psychological therapy, which he reports has helped.

Before Aug. 11, Mejia Hernandez worked about 70 hours a week across two jobs, roughly 40 hours in commercial building cleaning and 30 in office maintenance, earning about $52,000 a year. He has not worked since. His doctors have told him to avoid fatigue and heavy lifting and to work only in calm, low-stress conditions, and the filing says a man who had never needed to ask anyone for money now feels ashamed to depend on others.

The Federal Tort Claims Act allows certain damage claims against the United States over the actions of federal employees. Mejia Hernandez’s claim alleges assault and battery through excessive force, negligent or reckless operation of a motor vehicle, negligent failure to render aid, gross negligence and the failure of other officers at the scene to intervene. It also cites Martin v. United States, a 2025 decision in which, the claim says, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the Supremacy Clause does not give the government a defense under the act.

Under the act, a claim goes first to the federal agency involved, which generally has six months to resolve it before the claimant can sue in federal court. Along with the $35 million, Mejia Hernandez is seeking attorneys’ fees, costs and other relief allowed by law. The claim lays out his allegations only, and it is not a court finding that any federal officer or agency is liable.