|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
New Bedford continues to feel the effects of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations that have so far detained at least 28 men, mostly from Guatemala, in the city since the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
The Light has been unable to confirm whether any resident was arrested in an operation Tuesday where agents detained 40 immigrants on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. That operation came as ICE and Homeland Security Investigations face a leadership shakeup and an administration announcement of a 3,000 daily national immigration arrest goal as part of the president’s mass deportation campaign.
Nonetheless, legal processes in several cases have been carried out, resulting in some deportations and some releases involving New Bedford immigrants.
Guilty plea in U.S. District Court
Mário Lopez Sajvin, a Guatemalan immigrant, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court Massachusetts in Boston Wednesday to illegal re-entry, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to the DOJ, Sajvin was deported on Dec. 8, 2010, following an assault and battery conviction in Prince George’s County, Maryland, earlier that year. The press release said the charge stemmed from an incident with his roommate earlier that year. The Prince George’s County District Court Clerk’s Office did not respond to a Light request for the records.
A review of records at New Bedford District Court found charges of assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, issued respectively on March 30 and Sept. 8, 2009. The first charge was dismissed upon recommendation of the Probation Department and the second due to failure to prosecute.
According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Sajvin was turned away twice after attempting to re-enter the country near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in December 2022. It remains unclear when he re-entered the U.S.
On Nov. 25, 2023, Westport police arrested Sajvin on an open warrant, though it remains unclear on what charge. In the complaint, the Department of Homeland Security said police did not hold him despite an ICE request. The Light has filed a public records request with the Westport Police Department for the arrest report.
On March 3, 2024, New Bedford police charged Sajvin with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, possession of an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle, and lewdness/open and gross misconduct. Sajvin admitted to sufficient facts on the unlicensed operation and lewdness charges and was sentenced to administrative supervision on Aug. 6, 2024, with a new appearance date set for Aug. 5, 2025. Sajvin was found not responsible for the open container charge.
On Dec. 29, 2024, New Bedford police charged Sajvin with negligent operation of a motor vehicle, improper operation of a motor vehicle, operating under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of property damage, and a marked lanes violation. That case remains open with a warrant issued for his arrest on May 8, more than a month after his entry into ICE detention.
Authorities detained Sajvin, 35, and his roommates, Oswaldo Vicente Sajvin, 24, and Julio Amilcar Chiquin Tux, 27, at their Sawyer Street apartment on March 22 as part of an “enhanced enforcement operation” across the Commonwealth at the time. A review by the New Bedford District Court clerk’s office found no criminal charges filed against either of the other two men in Massachusetts.
According to U.S. District Court records, Mário Lopez Sajvin was assigned an attorney and waived his rights to the reading of the indictment, a preliminary hearing, and a detention hearing. He agreed to plead in an agreement acknowledging the potential immigration consequences of his plea.
The DOJ said he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, three years supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. According to the plea agreement, Sajvin is likely to face 24 months probation and a mandatory $100 fine with little or no prison time.
Sajvin’s sentencing is set for July 10 at the Joseph E. Moakley Courthouse in Boston.
One man released with ankle monitor
A man who entered the U.S. three years ago as an unaccompanied minor was released from ICE custody Tuesday, according to his lawyer.
Ondine Gálvez Sniffin said authorities released Mario Estuardo Toj Cos, 20, on Tuesday, about three weeks after attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf at U.S. District Court Massachusetts.
Sniffin said Immigration Judge Donald Ostrom of the Chelmsford Immigration Court ordered his release on bail without a GPS monitor, but that ICE released him with one anyway. She said she intends to go to court and ask the judge to put an order to remove monitoring in writing.
“They put a GPS monitor on him and from their point of view, it’s pretty standard,” she said. “Now, we’re going to have to file a bond motion to have that taken off.”
According to documents obtained by The Light after their filing in U.S. District Court, Toj Cos was in a van when federal authorities stopped the vehicle looking for someone else on May 7. Toj Cos, the target, and two others were detained as part of the operation.
Lawyers for Toj Cos claimed in their habeas corpus petition that he was arrested without justification.
Toj Cos entered the U.S. in 2022 at the age of 17, according to documents obtained by The Light after filing in U.S. District Court. As an unaccompanied minor, he could not be held in immigration detention under current statute and instead was released into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Soon after, he was handed over to the custody of his brother, Silverio Toj Cos.
Multiple New Bedford men have been deported
At least three men detained in New Bedford since January by federal authorities in immigration enforcement operations are now confirmed out of the country.
The men include Manuel Ordoñez Socop, and José Antonio Garcia Garcia, 39, both arrested in a raid on their Viall Street home in the city’s South End on March 21. Leticia, 19, a cousin of Socop’s who lived with the pair, confirmed the two men were both deported.
According to two minors and one young adult present for the raid, agents dressed in military fatigues used a battering ram to enter their home without permission and did not show a warrant seeking either Garcia or Socop. The youth said agents pointed guns at them during the operation and only released them after they proved legal presence in the U.S.
“We’re still working through what happened,” Leticia told The Light Wednesday in Spanish.
As of Friday, a search through the ICE detainee locator found no results for Socop, though a Guatemalan named “José Garcia” was located at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, a common holding sight for deportees just before their flights to Guatemala.
In a separate case, the wife of Juan Ramón Alegría Rodas, 43, confirmed to The Light that he was deported to Guatemala on May 19.
Rodas had been living in the U.S. for 30 years when agents arrested him outside the home of his wife, Patricia, in the North End of the city on May 5 as he prepared to drive to New Bedford High School to pick up his daughter from school.
When asked for further comment, Patricia said she had nothing to add at the moment.
“It’s not a good moment now,” she said in Spanish. “My children are very sad.”
Rui Murras
A review of the ICE detainee locator found that Rui Murras, a Portuguese green card holder who has lived in New Bedford since he was 2, is no longer listed in the database, an indicator that he is no longer in agency custody.
Helena DaSilva Hughes, president of the Immigrants’ Assistance Center, said its significance is unclear.
“It means one of two things,” she said. “Either he’s out on bail or they deported him.”
Rumors recently spread that authorities released Murras following a report in the Portuguese news service Agência Lusa last week. The Light found the reports to be false after conversations with Hughes and Stephen Roth, Murras’ immigration attorney.
“I spoke with the family after that,” Hughes said. “They told me he hadn’t even had a bail hearing yet.
ICE took Murras into custody after Customs and Border Protection stopped him at Boston Logan International Airport as he returned from a trip to Mexico with his girlfriend. The detainment was due to a 2013 drug charge that had been dismissed by the courts. According to immigration law, a charge for any felony that can result in a minimum prison stay of 365 days, is enough to flag someone for deportation.
Murras’ lawyer, family and representatives for the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Relations did not respond to requests for comment.
Portugal’s Embassy in the U.S. said it is following Murras’ case and is in touch with the U.S. government on the matter.
“We are following the developments of the process,” Portuguese Ambassador to the U.S. Francisco Duarte Lopes told The Light in an e-mail. “We will continue to respect the wishes of the family to not speak publicly on the matter.”
Murras’ lawyer and family did not respond to requests for comment.
Email Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Sunday, June 1, 2025, to correct the spelling of Portuguese Ambassador to the U.S. Francisco Duarte Lopes’ name. This story was updated on Saturday, May 31, 2025, to add comment from Portugal’s Embassy in the U.S.
No due process, no America. Plain and simple.