NC asylum seeker arrested by ICE was hospitalized. His family fought to see him.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Advocates and officials were blocked from seeing detained immigrant patient.
- ICE arrested David Cardenas Centeno at a USCIS appointment; he had crisis.
- Family says hospital won’t locate him; not logged under his real name.
A Raleigh man hospitalized after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him is set to be released from the federal agency’s custody, ending a confusing and dramatic week for his family.
ICE arrested asylum seeker David Cárdenas Centeno when he went to Charlotte’s Department of Homeland Security office for an annual check-in on Dec. 4. Soon after, he suffered some sort of medical emergency, and was taken to Atrium Health Pineville.
On Wednesday, when she did not yet have updates and reports were circulating about a possible heart surgery, Cárdenas Centeno’s partner said, “I don’t know if he’s been operated on, if he’s going to be operated on. I wanted my daughters to see him.”
“It’s distressing,” she said in Spanish.
With little information, his partner turned to advocacy group Siembra NC, which tried with the help of pastors and local officials to see him on Wednesday. They were unsuccessful.
Just as the group prepared to hold a press conference on Thursday morning and criticize the hospital system and ICE, they heard that Cárdenas Centeno would soon be released from agents’ custody.
“It was a pretty incredible arc, the last 48 hours,” said Siembra’s Marley Monacello.
ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams confirmed the plans to The Charlotte Observer.
“He’ll be on alternative detention — like an ankle monitor or whatever other device — and he’ll have to do check-ins with us at whatever specified time,” Williams said.
He did not know why ICE chose to release Cárdenas Centeno from custody, he said, but assumed it had something to do with compassion for his medical situation.
Cárdenas Centeno is scheduled for open-heart surgery soon, with his wife by his side, according to Siembra.
What happened when he was detained
Cárdenas Centeno’s partner, with whom he shares three daughters, said on Wednesday they had all gone on Dec. 4 to an appointment at Charlotte’s Department of Homeland Security office on Tyvola Centre Drive. She said all of them have asylum cases.
Cárdenas Centeno’s partner fears she will be detained because of her own status as an asylum seeker. The News & Observer agreed not to name her.
She said Cárdenas Centeno entered the United States years ago and was deported more than a decade ago. They later met in Nicaragua, where they had their three children and ran a jewelry and clothing business. She said they fled in 2022 after facing threats and a government shutdown of their business. They requested asylum upon arriving in the United States.
The asylum process can take years to conclude, with a significant backlog of pending decisions. The Trump administration has also made several changes to the process in recent months. In late November, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — part of the Department of Homeland Security — halted all asylum decisions following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C. News outlets have also reported that dozens of immigrants across the country have received letters notifying them that their asylum cases have been dismissed.
They had completed similar yearly check-ins while their cases remained pending, but this time unfolded differently.
After checking in and turning in their documents, she said Cárdenas Centeno was called in first. While waiting, he phoned her to say he was being detained and told her to leave.
“I panicked,” she said in Spanish. She ran out with her kids, leaving all of her and her daughters’ documents inside the office.
At least three other people were arrested at the same field office last week, according to Siembra.
Call from the hospital
On Friday, she received a morning call from a private number. It turned out to be Cárdenas Centeno.
He was at the hospital.
She said what he was able to tell her on Friday was: “‘They brought me in with my sugar at nine-hundred-something.’ And I said, ‘What?’ ‘I kept telling them that I felt sick and they wouldn’t listen to me,’ he told me. ‘And I was dying.’”
Cárdenas Centeno is diabetic and takes medication every day for diabetes, circulation and blood pressure — none of which he had with him, his partner said. He also had no food with him. She added that he suffered a mini-stroke years ago.
She said she heard from him again on Friday night, when hospital employees were asking her for information about his medications. He was also able to tell her which hospital he was at, she said. She also said he wanted to request a medical report from the hospital because he was concerned about possible medical negligence.
In the days that followed, she was unable to get updates. She said hospital employees told her they had no record under his name and, at one point, directed her to contact immigration officials. She and her daughters continued calling throughout the week with no success.
She said she was only able to get more information after Siembra NC got involved.
Group believes that pressure made a difference
The small group advocating for Cárdenas Centeno’s family met at the hospital on Wednesday morning, around 9 a.m. About an hour later, after they were unable to see him, and after they had moved outside the lobby, they left.
Cárdenas Centeno’s partner called Monacello over FaceTime and spoke with the group while they were still there. She wanted to come, Monacello explained, but her daughters talked her out of it.
A hospital chaplain acted as a liaison for the group, asking Atrium’s administration questions. He is in “legal custody,” the chaplain said higher-ups at Atrium told her, and no one could see him.
Three Democratic current and former elected officials — North Carolina Rep. Julia Greenfield, Mecklenburg County Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell and former Charlotte City Council Member Braxton Winston — were some of the people trying to meet with Cárdenas Centeno on Wednesday.
A security guard approached the group, singled out a Charlotte Observer reporter and said, “If you’re a reporter, you have to leave the property.”
They also left soon after.
On Thursday, many of them were back on a sidewalk in view of the hospital.
Rodriguez-McDowell, who has been critical of ICE and Border Patrol’s presence in Charlotte, said she came prepared on Thursday to give “a blasting speech about Atrium and its mission statement.”
(On Wednesday evening, Atrium told the Observer in a statement that it was “treating this patient as we do all others in our care, with compassion and acting in their best interests to protect their health at all times.”)
But just before Rodriguez-McDowell could give that speech, Siembra heard from Cárdenas Centeno’s partner that he would soon be released. The commissioner believed that pressure from the group led to that change.
“It never should have happened,” added her colleague, Commissioner Laura Meier.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published December 11, 2025 at 4:42 PM.
