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U.S. Immigration and Customs agents continued to make arrests at multiple locations in the New Bedford area early Tuesday morning, for the second day.
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 interacted with demonstrators. ERO is the acronym for Enforcement and Removal Operations, a division of ICE.
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.”
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 sat there for more than five minutes until he exited and approached.
She showed her press credentials again. He declined to comment on how many arrests ICE made in New Bedford this week. His tactical vest had a body camera mounted, but it’s unclear if it was on.
Soon after, the cars drove away.
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.
Healey, Mitchell react
Gov. Maura 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 Jon Mitchell criticized ICE in a Tuesday statement.
“Yesterday’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.”
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, Kenshino 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 or Pierre. Limited searches of local courts found no criminal records for 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 10 had been filed by mid-morning on Tuesday.
This is a developing story.
Contact Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org.
Contact Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
