A Liberian-born pastor living in North Carolina who suffered a stroke while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month has left immigration detention and is headed to a rehabilitation hospital offering round-the-clock care.
Word of Gabriel Johnson’s release came in a family statement posted to Instagram. His daughter, Gabri Johnson, wrote that the ordeal is not over, though he can now focus on healing and the recovery he needs.
“We are deeply grateful, and we are praying that his medical team can help him learn to walk again,” the family statement reads. “There is still a long road ahead. My father’s release does not erase what has happened or the challenges our family continues to face. But it gives him the opportunity to focus on healing and begin the rehabilitation he so desperately needs.”
“Mountains were moved through prayer, persistence, and the extraordinary love extended in our direction.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) previously told The Christian Post that agents picked Johnson up on July 15 as part of a targeted enforcement operation.
Officials first told the family the arrest traced to a missed immigration check-in, Gabri Johnson said. She said relatives later learned that authorities were instead moving to deport her father, a step she linked to a policy change at the federal level.
Gabri Johnson has maintained that her father has held lawful status in the country since arriving at age 15, though he never pursued citizenship.
The DHS spokesperson said Johnson came to the country in late December 1987 on a visa good for six months and stayed on after it lapsed. Years later, in January 1991, a judge ordered him deported, and under that order, Johnson would remain in ICE custody while deportation proceedings moved forward.
Johnson serves as an associate pastor at Elm Grove Church Ministries, Inc., a congregation in Pikeville, North Carolina. He graduated from North Carolina Central University, a historically black institution, and was ordained sometime afterward.
DHS officials point to a criminal history for Johnson spanning drug possession, fraud, stolen mail, misuse of access devices and a false citizenship claim, plus several traffic violations, and add that he also faced harassment and simple-assault charges.
On July 30, medical staff at Texas Health Harris Hospital took Johnson in after he began showing signs consistent with a stroke, according to ICE. Federal officials said doctors were watching his blood pressure and that his condition had stabilized.
The stroke left the left side of his body numb and without movement, according to his daughter.
Relatives who flew to Texas ran into obstacles trying to reach him and were finally allowed a visit only once he was already in the hospital, NBC News reported. Gabri Johnson blamed ICE for standing in the way of her father getting into a rehab program he needed to walk again.
He had struggled with high blood pressure before and had experienced strokes previously. His daughter told theGrio that guards let doses of his medicine slip during detention, and she alleged that food and water were rationed too tightly for those held there.
“I got a call from the hospital in Texas today saying that my father was rushed there after having a stroke,” Gabri Johnson said in a July 30 social media video. “Like he’s been telling them, ‘give me my medication,’ ‘give me food,’ ‘give me water.’ They laughed at him. They refused. My father had a stroke in the left side of his body is completely paralyzed right now. ICE is fully responsible for this.”
ICE pushed back on those allegations, saying flatly that it disputes any claim it withheld treatment and stressed that Johnson was in the hands of licensed medical staff throughout. The agency added that it plays no role in clinical calls or treatment decisions, leaving that judgment to the hospital staff responsible for his care.
The agency says its “longstanding practice [is] to provide comprehensive medical care,” including medical, dental, psychiatric and emergency care.
Gabri Johnson framed her father’s release as “an enormous victory,” while noting the relief is tempered by sympathy for other families still waiting on loved ones held elsewhere.
Scrutiny of detention conditions has built for months, part of a wider debate over the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Federal officials maintain the campaign targets “the worst of the worst,” citing figures that roughly seven in 10 ICE arrests involve someone already facing charges or a conviction. Opponents of the crackdown counter that it has swept up clergy, well-regarded local figures and refugees fleeing nations where Christians face intense persecution.
