ICE arrests in New Bedford continue after ‘enhanced operation’

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NEW BEDFORD — Monday morning was already busy for Otoniel Riz Benito and his livery business when an unfamiliar number flashed on his phone.  

“He said he wanted a ride to court,” recalls Riz Benito in Spanish. 

The man, later identified as Manuel Ruiz, 54, originally of Guatemala, needed a ride to New Bedford District Court for a 9 a.m. hearing for a misdemeanor charge of operating under the influence from March 29, according to court records.

Riz Benito said he picked Ruiz up at 122 Nash Road at 7:51 a.m. Shortly after Ruiz entered the vehicle, an ominous utterance escaped his lips.

“I heard him say, ‘They’ve come for me,’” Riz Benito said. “That’s when I looked up and saw a large SUV in front of me and another behind me.”

“I just put my hand on his back and told him good luck,” he added.

Riz Benito said between 8 and 10 men wearing black jackets with the words “POLICE ICE” surrounded the vehicle. They opened the door and took the client out of the car.

“They came, and they opened the doors,” he said. “The guy didn’t do anything; he just let it happen.”

Riz Benito, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Guatemala, said he stepped out of the vehicle willingly and an agent questioned him about his residency.

“I told him I was a citizen,” he recalled. “He then looked at me hard and said, ‘If you’re lying to me, you know you’re in big trouble, right?’”

“I was calm and showed no fear, even though deep down inside, I was scared,” he said. “Nothing happened because I approached the situation from a place of calm.”

The agent let Riz Benito go after running his name through a database. The whole action took about 10 minutes.

“They let me go and then went to their vehicles,” he said. “Before they closed the doors, I heard one say, ‘We’re very busy now.’”

A search of New Bedford District Court records showed Ruiz admitted on Sept. 9, 2021 to “sufficient facts on an assault charge after being given an ‘alien warning,’” a verbal advisement by the court that a person may be subject to deportation or other immigration consequences due to a criminal charge. The charges were dismissed on Sept. 8, 2022, after a recommendation from the Probation Department.

“Things are in a critical state right now”

Activists say incidents such as Ruiz’s arrest and another the following day at Bob’s Tire have amplified a feeling of terror in the city’s immigrant communities.

“Things are in a critical state right now,” said Lucia Mateo, community outreach and education coordinator for the Community Economic Development Center (CEDC) of Southeastern Massachusetts, in Spanish. “It’s a vicious circle of fear that keeps reinforcing itself.”

On Tuesday, CEDC Director Corinn Williams and Adrian Ventura, executive director of the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, confirmed that federal agents detained two men at Bob’s Tire, taking one into custody, as workers went on lunch break.

“From what we were able to ascertain, an ICE agent appeared on the property,” Williams said, adding that Bob’s management approached the federal agents and asked for a warrant. “They then told them it was private property and they asked them to leave.”

According to Ventura, workers said the agents then waited nearby on a public road to pick up workers. One was released after proving legal residency, but the other, Amilcar Gomez, a Guatemalan man, was taken into custody.

Representatives for Bob’s Tire declined to comment. 

Another operation took place on Thursday night in New Bedford, where at least three residents of 89 South Sixth St. said that at around 7:15 p.m., approximately 20 agents wearing bulletproof vests and carrying rifles pulled into the driveway and began knocking repeatedly on the doors of the six-unit building. 

The residents who answered said the agents showed them a photograph of a man believed to live in one of the apartments. According to all three witnesses, the agents were not wearing visible identification badges, though some had “State Troopers” printed on their vests. Before leaving, one agent — who identified himself only as Jay — gave his phone number to a resident and asked to be contacted if the man in question returned home.

The actions came a week after ICE announced the conclusion of an “enhanced enforcement operation” statewide, from March 18 to 23, that the agency said resulted in the detention of 370 “illegal aliens,” including 205 who “had significant criminal convictions or charges.” The Light has confirmed that at least eight people were detained in New Bedford as part of that operation, for a total of at least 14 detained in the city since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Included in both numbers were José Antonio Garcia Garcia, 39, and Miguel Ordoñez Sorocop, 35, whose house agents entered without a warrant on March 21 using a battering ram and wearing military fatigues, according to several teenage residents of the home present at the time. It is unclear whether either man has a criminal record.

The raid prompted 200 people to demonstrate outside City Hall on March 29 and call on Mayor Jon Mitchell to speak out on ICE operations.

“ICE has operated in New Bedford for many years, but what’s new now is the lack of transparency,” Mitchell said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. “The agency has stopped notifying the New Bedford Police Department ahead of time, and there has been little to no indication whether the individuals they have apprehended are criminals or subject to removal orders.

“This has created the impression that they are sweeping up people who may have a right to be in the United States, generating unnecessary fear among law-abiding residents of our City,” he continued. “ICE should focus on criminals and let everyone know that’s what they’re doing.”

James Covington, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, declined to comment on operations, citing the security of ICE agents. When asked to respond to Mitchell’s statement, he said he was unaware of any adjustments in ICE policy regarding the notification of local law enforcement agencies but he would reach out to the Boston area field office for clarification.

Hispanic community “living in a state of terror”

Foreign diplomats have noticed the tension in the city.

“We are truly experiencing a complex situation now,” said Claudia Noemi Gatica Santos de Moreno, the consul general of Guatemala at the consulate in Providence, during a Spanish-language event Wednesday at CCT’s office in New Bedford. 

“We’ve heard many stories in the consulate,” she continued. “I’ve only been here two months, but it feels like seven years.”

She added that as far as the consulate is aware, police in Massachusetts and Rhode Island have not aided immigration authorities in operations.

Nonetheless, ICE’s strong presence in the area has amplified the fear in the community.

Mateo, the CEDC outreach coordinator, said that she fears for her community and for civil rights writ large.

“The Hispanic community is living in a state of terror,” she said. “The law says one thing, but things play out differently in practice.”

Kevin G. Andrade is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to The Light.

Light reporter Eleonora Bianchi contributed to this report.