ICE held UW Medicine worker Robert Sidhe in Tacoma detention through a stroke-risk medical emergency it could not safely treat

At a September 11, 2026 hearing on Robert Sidhe's habeas corpus petition, U.S. District Court Judge Tiffany Cartwright found that the risk of a future stroke, combined with "the difficulty of accessing emergency care in detention," could be "catastrophic" -- even though imaging had shown Sidhe had not had a bona fide stroke. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had held Sidhe, a 43-year-old UW Medicine patient care technician originally from Kenya, in detention at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, through the medical emergency, in which he suffered severely elevated blood pressure and stroke-like symptoms and was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma.

Cartwright noted that Sidhe is the caretaker for his partner, a disabled U.S. citizen who uses a wheelchair, and granted a temporary restraining order -- a remedy reserved for extraordinary circumstances -- ordering his release within six hours, ahead of a full hearing on his petition challenging the detention as unlawful. ICE had first detained Sidhe on August 26, 2026, stopping him as he drove home from a gym in Lynnwood, Washington, and moved him among at least three facilities in different states before returning him to the Tacoma center. Sidhe, who entered the U.S. legally five times on visas, last entered in February 2023 and has had an asylum application pending since later that year.

An ICE spokesperson said Sidhe's authorized stay had expired in August 2023 and that he "did not depart as required," citing a Department of Homeland Security statement that a pending asylum application "does NOT confer legal status in the United States." ICE did not cite any criminal history when asked about Sidhe. UW Medicine and Sidhe's union representatives held his position open during his roughly two-and-a-half-week detention, and the government had not formally initiated deportation proceedings against him as of the September 11 hearing, though his removal was still expected to be pursued.