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NEW BEDFORD — U.S. Immigration and Customs agents fanned out across the New Bedford area for a second day on Tuesday, spreading fear within the immigrant community and arresting at least nine people at multiple locations. At least 10 people were detained by federal agents on Monday.
Gov. Maura Healey called on ICE to release more information about the arrests, while Mayor Jon Mitchell criticized ICE “overreach.”
The operations prompted area advocates to advise immigrants to stay at home Tuesday.
“It’s unjust,” said Adrian Ventura, executive director of the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, during a Spanish language livestream from the New Bedford Market Basket parking lot, where he said ICE agents were present. “If you don’t have to be anywhere, stay in your homes.”
Tuesday afternoon, ICE agents stopped a white SUV near the intersection of Acushnet Avenue and Sawyer Street, videos obtained by The Light show. An agent opened the driver’s door and a man ran out. Four agents chased him and tackled him. Once he was on the ground, one of the agents tased him. The taser was directed at the man for about 15 seconds, but it is unclear whether the agent was firing the weapon the entire time.
“I’m scared,” said Sandra Varela, an employee at V’s Hair, near where the tasing incident took place.
Iris de la Rosa, who co-owns Taqueria La Raza, saw the arrest from inside the restaurant.
“I had a feeling they’d stop here today because I saw black vehicles going by all day,” she said in Spanish. “I saw them throw the guy to the ground. They’re really bad.”
“I locked the door,” she continued, adding that the seven or so agents appeared to examine the colorful decorations at the restaurant’s entrance before leaving. “I became panicked because I don’t want them coming in here. I have my papers, but I don’t carry them around with me.”
Around 4 p.m., a Light reporter saw five agents in four vehicles arrest two men from another vehicle in front of Restaurante y Tortilleria Guatemalteco on Acushnet Avenue. Volunteers from LUCE blew whistles and shouted at the agents.
The reporter shouted questions at the agents and the driver of the stopped vehicle. The driver told the reporter that one of them was named “Mario Aguilar.” It was unclear whether he was referring to himself or his passenger. An agent moved in between the man and the reporter, blocking other questions. Agents then arrested the driver before driving off. Multiple questions from the reporter about why the men were being arrested were not answered.
A video posted online by LUCE New Bedford, a network of volunteers that monitors ICE activity, showed at least one detained person being placed in a black van at the Church Street MBTA Station in New Bedford. In the video, which contained no sound, a masked agent wearing camouflage and the acronym ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations, a division of ICE) interacted with demonstrators.
Other arrests occurred Tuesday morning near St. Anthony of Padua Church in the North End and at the Market Basket parking lot, according to Corinn Williams, a local advocate for immigrants.
There was also activity near the waterfront by Fairfield Inn on MacArthur Drive on Tuesday afternoon. LUCE New Bedford posted an image of two federal immigration agents standing in the middle of the road in front of the hotel.
A reporter from The Light saw at least three vehicles with flashing lights and blacked-out windows pulling away from Homer’s Wharf, across the street from the hotel.
Two New Bedford police officers were on scene trying to direct traffic, which had backed up in both directions. One city officer said that the department received a 911 call about a car blocking the road.
Police Chief Jason Thody said in a statement that ICE did not provide the police department “with specific locations, individuals being sought, or details regarding any planned enforcement actions.” He said the police’s role is to “maintain public safety, preserve order, and enforce Massachusetts law when necessary.”
Dartmouth arrestee faced indecent assault on child charges
Dartmouth police received a 911 call from a citizen about a traffic stop on Faunce Corner Road on Tuesday morning. Lt. Keith DaCosta said the citizen reported being concerned because the officers were masked.
DaCosta said a Dartmouth officer happened to be driving by and confirmed it was ICE. He said Dartmouth police were not involved and were not alerted by ICE of planned activity.
Video obtained by The Light shows the Dartmouth arrest, with agents around a stopped landscaping truck.
Helena DaSilva Hughes, president of the Immigrants’ Assistance Center, told The Light that João Ferreira, 59, a Portuguese man with a green card, was taken into custody early Tuesday morning in Dartmouth alongside a Brazilian man while on his way to a landscaping job in New Bedford.
In 1992, Ferreira was charged in Fall River District Court with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and two indecent exposure charges. Records show the case was continued without a finding, then closed — a disposition that generally results from completion of probation.
In 2009, Ferreira was found guilty of two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to probation, Fall River District Court records show.
In January 2019, Customs and Border Protection stopped Ferreira at Logan Airport in Boston and gave him a notice to appear for removal proceedings, according to a court filing; the government sought to remove him from the U.S. for having committed a crime involving “moral turpitude.”
In September 2019, Ferreira filed a motion for a new trial on the indecent assault and exposure charges, claiming that the case records don’t show whether he was informed of his right to a jury trial or was given an “alien warning,” a notice that his plea carried potential immigration consequences. Court records do not show any resolution to his 2019 motion.
Healey, Mitchell react
Governor Healey said she is looking for answers from federal officials about the arrests in the city.
“We have been hearing from alarmed family members and advocates in New Bedford after ICE reportedly arrested at least a dozen people yesterday,” Healey said in a statement on Tuesday. “Many of those arrested have lived here for many years and have families here. They were on their way to work at a fishing plant, supermarket and other key industries for the region.”
Healey’s statement said the administration had also heard of a young boy waiting for his father to pick him up from school, “but he had been arrested.”
“ICE needs to provide information immediately,” Healey said. “Our administration will continue to provide support to the community and families, but ICE needs to answer for their actions.”
Mayor Mitchell criticized ICE in a Tuesday statement.
“[Monday’s] arrests in our city underscore that even under new management, ICE continues to overreach,” Mitchell said. “It grabbed at least eight individuals who were going about their morning routines. There is no indication that any one of them had criminal records beyond minor motor vehicle violations.
“The agency then refrained from releasing information about them,” Mitchell continued, “leaving their friends, family and employers in the dark. And it failed yet again to notify our police department of its operations, putting at risk police officers who might arrive on scene.
“This is not the way the system should work,” Mitchell said. “It reminds us yet again that America’s immigration law and the agency primarily charged with enforcing it must be overhauled.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declined to answer questions from The Light about the ICE operation, such as the number of people arrested and any charges they faced.
“ICE agents uphold our nation’s immigration laws in all 50 states, seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” wrote the spokesperson, who did not provide their name. “DHS does not discuss ongoing or future operations.”
The email listed five men detained in previous ICE operations, whom it called “some of the worst of the worst arrested in Massachusetts.”
ICE used business park as staging area
A sprinter van and several cars were staged on Duchaine Boulevard in the New Bedford Business Park on Tuesday morning. The officers wore tactical gear and neck gaiters shielding their faces.
One truck with highly tinted windows pulled around and stopped in front of a Light reporter’s car. The reporter showed her press badge and he said, “Fantastic.”
The Light reporter pulled her car forward to continue watching the federal officers. The truck pulled behind the reporter’s car and stayed there for more than five minutes until he exited his vehicle and approached her.
She showed her press credentials again. She asked how many arrests ICE made in New Bedford this week, but he declined to comment. His tactical vest had a body camera mounted, but it’s unclear if it was on.
Soon after, the cars drove away.
ICE activity near schools
Cheryl Silveira said she was picking up her 10-year old grandson from the DeValles Elementary School in New Bedford Tuesday morning when she saw four agents in a black SUV cut off a red SUV. She was unsure whether the driver of the red SUV was detained.
“[My grandson] noticed it,” she said. “He was upset and said: ‘that’s not right, that’s not right.’ He took photos too.”
Silveira said of ICE, “They need to stop and they need to just get out of here and go away.”
New Bedford Public School Superintendent Andrew O’Leary declined to comment on the incident outside DeValles, though he did speak in general terms.
“We have received several reports of activity in school neighborhoods,” O’Leary said. ”We continue to monitor building concerns and provide support and reassurance to families.”
O’Leary later released an online statement. “While our schools continue to operate normally and without disruption, the impact of enforcement activity on many of our students and families has reached an unacceptable level of fear and concern,” he wrote. “Our schools continue to follow established safety and visitor protocols [and] carefully monitor access to our buildings.”
City Councilor Shane Burgo called the ICE actions “deeply dangerous” in a Facebook post Tuesday.
“When masked federal agents sweep into our city unannounced, detain residents, refuse to provide basic information, and fail to coordinate with our local police department, they create fear and put both residents and law enforcement officers at risk,” Burgo wrote.
He encouraged New Bedford residents who witness an immigration enforcement operation to “document what you safely can and make sure accurate information reaches the public.”
Activists hold City Hall news conference
More than 70 advocates gathered for a news conference on the steps of New Bedford City Hall to condemn Monday and Tuesday’s ICE operations. Gretchen Baker Smith, a member of LUCE New Bedford’s verification team, said that so many calls entered into their ICE hotline that it froze.
Alícia Lopez González, director of Mujeres Victoriosas and a member of LUCE New Bedford, also called on city leaders to do more than “make statements” and for people to join the organization. She also said they expect the surge to continue in the near future.
“ICE has been on our streets,” she said. “ICE has been terrorizing our community. … But we won’t stop fighting for our rights.”
Ricardo Rosa, an official with the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said ICE agents had used a New Bedford Police Department parking lot as a staging area on Monday.
Holly Huntoon, a police department spokesperson, told The Light that the police did not receive a request from ICE to use a station parking lot, “nor do we have any arrangement authorizing ICE to use the property as part of its operations,” she added. “The parking lot is open to members of the public and is routinely used by people coming to the station for a variety of reasons.”
Day 1 recap
Tuesday’s actions mark the second day of intense operations in the area. Federal agents took at least 10 people into custody Monday, according to Ondine Sniffin, an immigration attorney helping with response to the situation.
That day, at least five men who worked in fish houses were taken into custody in the port area, Sniffin said. A Light reporter recorded one of those Monday arrests, during which demonstrators confronted the agents.
In the video, a male agent can be heard telling one of the activists, “You’re making things worse.”
“No!” an activist shouted back. “You’re making it worse! Why are you here?”
Another Light reporter observed a caravan of ICE agents leave the Dartmouth Mall property around 11:30 a.m. Monday, headed toward New Bedford on Route 6. Later that afternoon, ICE detained three men at the New Bedford Market Basket, according to Sniffin and to activists’ online posts.
The Light is working to identify those detained in Monday’s operations. Earlier, it identified three of the arrested people as New Bedford residents Miguel Ixcuna-Ixcuna, 30; Israel Sam Cajuil, 38; and Arnaldo Lux. A fourth man identified by The Light, Oscar Abel Gutierrez, 37, resides in Fall River.
On Monday night, advocates within the Haitian community identified a fifth man from New Bedford, Kenchino Pierre, as having been detained near a laundromat on Ashley Boulevard.
According to records at New Bedford District Court, Ixcuna-Ixcuna faced misdemeanor charges for operating a motor vehicle without a license in 2018 and 2024; both were dismissed. Lux faces an arrest warrant after failing to appear for an arraignment in Taunton District Court in May on a misdemeanor charge of operating a motor vehicle without a license. The Light found no criminal cases in the Massachusetts court system for Gutierrez, Pierre, or Sam Cajuil.
Heather Arroyo, senior immigration attorney at the Massachusetts Legal Reform Institute, told The Light that 20 attorneys are on standby to assist with filing habeas corpus petitions to be filed at federal court in Boston. She said 14 had been filed by mid-afternoon on Tuesday.
Grace Ferguson and Nathan Collins contributed reporting.
Contact Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org.
Contact Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
Contact Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
Yea
Ignorance
Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, my heroes were men like Wyatt Earp. A federal agent who faced down real bad guys with guns. He never wore a mask.
The Lone Ranger wore a mask
The Trump criminal terrorist regime is stepping up its attacks on undocumented immgrants becuz they know they are losing have lost the hearts and minds and support of most Americans w their brutalist tactics similar to those used by the KKK to terrorize blacks into not voting and the Nazi Gestapo by shooting Jewish babies and gassing their parents..these tactics by ICE come from the same playbook..it won’t stop until the American people make it stop ICE OUT OF OUR COMMUNITIES STOP THE TERRORIST ATTACKS on our immgrant neighbors remember the same regime responsible for unaffordable gas housing food medical & drug prices is the same one using hate to divide us our best chance to do this is swarming the ballot boxes on Nov 3 and throwing out the ICE enablers in the House and Senate then the American people will turn to Mr Trump and bring his knightriders to justice🇺🇸
Come here legally and none of this would be happening. For those that took the bait when Joe Biden left the border wide open and Maura Healey begged them to come to Massachusetts and after six years the illegals that have done nothing to gain legal status, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Maybe one should study the term legal and legal status. Once you obtain legal status, even though someone over stood their visa or cross illegally, they are legally here pursuant to THE LAWS AND THE IMMIGRATION COURTS AS ADJUDICATED BY THE JUDGES. Before one speaks one should get better educated. This is not America, not the land of the free anymore, as one said above we look like Germany in the mid 1930’s and you what developed after that.
Hey that one guy has a green card. What’s the level of legal you require if that’s not enough for you?
Immigrants warned to stay home? Well I guess buisnesses will be short staffed because it seems there’s more illegals living in this city today than citizens.
Hello…..Come here legally and you are just fine. There are 1.3 million legal immigrants given entry per year. That means people who are vetted and sponsored just like my grandparents. Get real the Biden administration wanted to overwhelm the country with new immigrants to maintain political power. Power is money. Follow it.
To the Light reporter who doesn’t know how to tell if a body cam is on. First……..um never mind. 😂
Folks this is a lot of hype and TDS. I will repeat if they are not here legally and have an outstanding charge/warrant of any kind, they go. Does not matter when, how or where. They stay ONLY IF LEGAL AND EMPLOYED. Otherwise cry, rant, slobber all you want…..round they up and put them on a one way plane trip. ICE keep up the great work! Its what I voted for and will battle any future candidate who tries to reverse this toilet cleaning.
So America is the toilet?