|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
NEW BEDFORD — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave “misleading” and “last-minute” information to city law enforcement and has not responded to the city’s requests for more information about the violent arrest of a New Bedford immigrant this week, according to Mayor Jon Mitchell.
Juan Francisco Méndez, 29, an immigrant from Guatemala with no Massachusetts criminal record was arrested on Monday. Federal agents shattered his car window with an ax while he and his wife were inside waiting for their lawyer to arrive. The incident has drawn national attention and sparked strong responses, including support, outrage and condemnation.
“You watch a video like that and you say well what’s really going on there … why is this person being arrested this way?” Mitchell told reporters at City Hall. “The problem we have is that we just don’t get good information out of ICE, information that I think the residents in our city are entitled to.”
Méndez, who is currently being held at Strafford County House of Corrections in New Hampshire, has been in the United States for two years. He is undocumented and pursuing an adjustment of his immigration status, according to his attorney, Ondine Gálvez. His wife, Marilú Domingo Ortiz, is a beneficiary of an asylum program. They are the parents of one child.
Mitchell said the public needs to hear directly from ICE whether Méndez has a criminal history.
“We hear the Trump administration say that they’re prioritizing convicted criminals. I’ll be the first to say I want criminals removed from the streets of New Bedford,” Mitchell said. “But it should matter to everybody if these people are not criminals and they’re being detained because their identity is mistaken, that they are still adjudicating their immigration status and are waiting for a hearing.”
Méndez spoke to The Light from the correctional facility on Wednesday by phone.
“We are not criminals. We are hardworking people who came here to fight for our families and for a better future,” he said.
He said the only time he was treated badly was during his arrest, and that he’s with 30 to 40 other people who are also detained for immigration reasons. He said he has since been asked by federal officials if he wants to return to Guatemala, to which he replied no. He has a court hearing next month in Massachusetts, he told The Light.
The incident began Monday morning when federal agents’ cars blocked in Méndez and his wife on Tallman Street, The Light previously reported. Armed men wearing green bulletproof vests ordered them to get out of the vehicle. They told the officers that they would comply once their lawyer arrived, who was on her way to the scene.
Undocumented immigrants, like American citizens, have the right to due process and protection from unreasonable search and seizure. Some pay income, sales and local property taxes. In Massachusetts, undocumented immigrants can also get a driver’s license.
Per the American Civil Liberties Union Massachusetts, if a driver is stopped by law enforcement, they should turn off the car, open the window partly, and place their hands on the steering wheel. The video shows that Méndez put his hands on the steering wheel at one point.
Upon request, anyone stopped should show police their driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance. If an immigration agent asks to search the car or one’s belongings, immigrants have the right to say no. Agents do not have the right to search without either consent or probable cause that a crime has been committed. Both drivers and passengers have the right to remain silent.
Immigration lawyers say ICE officers might not always follow protocol, which makes it more critical for immigrants to know and assert their legal protections. If immigrants believe their rights have been violated, they can file a complaint with the appropriate agency.
Corinn Williams, director at the city’s Community Economic Development Center, was on the scene Monday and said New Bedford police were not receptive to taking a complaint or report over what Williams and others report was a violent arrest.
“I’m sorry that it happened. There’s not too much we can do here,” one New Bedford responding officer told advocates and Méndez’s attorney, Gálvez, on Monday, after Méndez was taken away.
The officer ultimately took down a report for the vehicle damage after Gálvez and others on the scene said a report is necessary for insurance claims. The Light has requested the report.
Mitchell, a former federal prosecutor, said ICE appears to have broken from a long-standing practice of alerting the city’s police department ahead of planned operations, which he said poses safety risks to officers, ICE agents, and the public.
It may also limit local law enforcement from helping to de-escalate “tense” situations such as the arrest of Méndez – in which ICE provided New Bedford police with the wrong street address, Mitchell said.
NBPD spokesperson Holly Huntoon confirmed this, stating the department received a call from ICE on Monday morning “during its activity in the North End.”
Huntoon said ICE communicated it was conducting an operation near an address on Deane Street, which is about a two-minute drive from Tallman Street.
“The communication [from ICE] has been inconsistent” since the beginning of the Trump administration in the level of detail and amount of notice given, Mitchell said.
At the start of the year, the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association released a “legal advisory” making clear that under state law established in a 2017 ruling, local authorities have no power to arrest or detain people for federal immigration enforcement, The Light previously reported.
However, state law does not ban all forms of cooperation with immigration enforcement. Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux and New Bedford Police Chief Paul Oliveira previously said they are willing to provide information to ICE, if requested. Oliveira also said he would not prevent police officers from volunteering information to ICE.
At least 15 people have been detained by federal agents in New Bedford since Jan. 20, the day President Donald Trump took office.
In late March, ICE conducted what it called an “enhanced enforcement operation” across Massachusetts, resulting in the detention of 370 people the agency described as “illegal aliens,” including 205 who “had significant criminal convictions or charges.” The Light confirmed that at least eight of those arrests took place in New Bedford.
Two men were detained while several teenagers were in the home at the time. ICE agents entered the house without a warrant using a battering ram and wearing military-style fatigues.
Other immigrants detained in New Bedford include three Guatemalan workers from a car wash and one worker from a tire factory.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Mitchell’s office had not heard back from ICE. Jonathan Darling, city public information officer, said he had contacted ICE’s Boston Field Office, which referred him to a public affairs main line. He also emailed the agency.
Mitchell said New Bedford is not a sanctuary city, but that “it’s quite a different thing to be rounding people up.”
“If the administration is interested in legitimizing what it’s doing, it should communicate, and it hasn’t been doing that,” Mitchell said.
The Light contacted ICE and asked if the agency had a warrant or probable cause to arrest Mendez.
An ICE spokesperson did not answer those questions, stating by email on Wednesday that Mendez is “an illegally present Guatemalan alien” who “refused to comply with officers’ instructions and resisted apprehension.”
“ICE concurs with the actions deemed appropriate by the officers on the scene who are trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve the situation in a manner that ensures the success of the operation and prioritizes the safety of our officers,” the spokesperson said.
Email Gerardo Beltrán Salinas at gerardo@newbedfordlight.org
Email Eleonora Bianchi at ebianchi@newbedfordlight.org
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org
Stop complaining.Maybe you shouldn’t have deemed New Bedford a sanctuary city and rolled out the red carpet for illegal immigrants in the first place Mr.Mayor and city officials.
it doesn’t matter if New Bedford is a sanctuary city or not, there is a process for dealing with immigration status and smashing in windows of cars with occupants inside is not that process, it’s thuggery
It does matter if you openly violate federal immigration laws. These sanctuary cities are to blame for this. They encourage people to break the law and then complain when these illegals are arrested.
roll down the window and the window does not get smashed …just like us non-illegal aliens have to do
Please stop shilling for having this administration trample over the American system of laws in which everyone (resident or not) has due process in court before being deemed guilty and sent to prison. And, these people are being sent to a prison that is considered a torture facility and is not under our jurisdiction. Is this really what you want? What if a relative of yours committed a minor crime and somehow was mistakenly sent to this “prison” as happened here? It could happen to YOU! Calling for the dismantling of our system of laws is extremely dangerous and ignorant.
Just so we’re clear, the 5th Amendment says “No person shall be denied life, liberty, or property without Due Process.” Not “no citizen,” not “no person with exceptions for those in the country illegally.” NO PERSON.
NO.
PERSON.
You folks plainly intend to desecrate the constitution. This administration plainly stated that they want to round up U.S. citizens just for voicing oppose these unconstitutional deportations to U.S. citizens.
Trump’s “Counterterrorism Czar” now saying that anyone advocating for due process for Kilmar Garcia is “aiding and abetting a terrorist” and could be looking at being federally charged.
“ANYONE” ADVOCATING FOR DUE PROCESS. DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS? IT MEANS THEY INTEND TO SEND EVERYONE WITH THE COURAGE TO DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION TO THE SALVADORIAN GULAG. WHERE WE WILL DIE. THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE DEFENDING.
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/comments/1k11wg4/trumps_counterterrorism_czar_now_saying_that/
That’s exactly it. They brag about how they will not cooperate with ICE and then expect cooperation from ICE. You get what you give. FAFO.
Why is the YouTube video cut and edited into pieces and not one long running piece? Why is there not much verbal interaction between/with the agents? I’m sure there has to be other video taken from houses and people in the street? Why hasn’t that come forward?
If MA and its cities and towns don’t want to work with ICE then they should expect likewise. ICE, DHS, FBI, DOJ, etc have zero obligation to work with or communicate. To believe so shows complete ignorance. Cooperate and things would likely be different. MA would rather be the tinfoil hat wearing clown town minority. Live with it. Prove me wrong.
Exactly, cooperate. Ashli Babbitt is a good example of someone who should have cooperated, am I right?
Well said.
This is Healys fault for treating a sitting president with disrespect along with Maine and its been like this for a while….Obama and Biden are Welcome, Trump is not. We are feeling the cold from that nasty attitude….FAFO works both ways… Smarten up and be more diplomatic.
I’m 2/3 rds in agreeing.
I grew up learning that, in the United States, a person is innocent until proven guilty. When the US Constitution says “the people” it means all the people in this country are entitled to due process in court. The US Supreme Court recently ruled unanimously that the US Justice Department was required to return a man it unjustly deported to El Salvador back to the United States for his due process rights in court. Another judge ruled today that there is probable cause to find the US government in contempt for refusing to obey his order to return the deportation planes back to the US so that due process rights could be available to the deportees. These judges are following our basic constitutional rights. In this country, we take our rights for granted and don’t often think about our US Constitution and Bill of Rights which aim to protect each and all of us from unjust treatment. We should. Especially now.
I agree with Susan, should not have rolled out the red carpet.
Once we can get past the anger over so called “line butters”, those who enter our country illegally and take the jobs that are rightfully ours, i.e. landscape workers, construction laborers, healthcare aids, etc.—we might begin to see the ways we’ve been manipulated by the powers that be who are trying to steal our democracy and use it for their own personal gain, i.e. tax breaks for the ultra wealthy, privatizing federal agencies, etc. As the Bible says: “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind, and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.”
” Jobs that are rightfully ours?” The jobs that you mentioned are filled by immigrants because most Americans do want to do physical labor. Many jobs in agriculture and construction goes unfilled if not by immigrants. I agree with most of you say, but saying that ” jobs that are rightfully ours” is nonsense.
Well said, Kenneth.
Without intelligent God fearing people there would be no Constitution of a United States and we would be under a Marxist Socialist government such as George Soros and John Kerry have been working toward. If you want to invite aliens into this country then you house, feed and care for them. That would mean you would have to educate them about our laws, traditions and history. Being free has responsibilities one of which is to keep a government that is true to our forefathers intent. Because we have failed to do so we now have a good part of our judicial controlled by Marxism, a country filled with nearly 40 M illegal aliens and 37 Trillion in debt with the world moving to remove the dollar standard!! Remember, Obama declared to the world: “we are no longer a Christian nation”. Proof the Marxist are undoing the Constitution and our forefathers.
This was never a Christian nation. The founding fathers didn’t want a theocracy, that’s why they left Britain. And FYI, a lot of the original settlers were Puritans, who hated Christmas and banned it from being celebrated. If you want to cite history, actually know about it.
Ironically neither Pilgrims or Puritans were tolerant of other groups even though they came here to escape religious intolerance. Both groups spent a good hundred years burning and persecuting the Quakers in Boston.
Freddy, I don’t fear Marxism or Socialism or aliens because I am educated and have lived in cities with all sorts of folks learning for myself that diversity is good. I fear isolated and uninformed religious folks who believe in a punitive god and are certain that they know what’s good for everyone else. The people undoing our constitutional rights at this very moment are our president and his cronies.
Maybe you should walk a mile in their shoes.
This is exactly what Nazis do. ICE are Trumps version of the brownshirts and we are currently ramping up to 1930’s with kidnappings and concentration camps . You are ignorant if you think you are exempt from being targeted, and if you defend kidnapping people and sending them to a gulag / death camp you are a Nazi. Don’t cry when it’s you, or your wife or your kids turn if you are currently defending this terrorist behavior. Everyone has a right to due process. In our country, the courts are here to decide the law, not a narcissistic dictator. Also, if ICE thugs are not required to identify themselves and terrorize people on the streets, they are just thugs. I hope the guy who smashed these folks windows has his identity exposed and is sued personally, and that he learns that “just following orders” does not get him off the hook for his reprehensible behavior.
The mayor needs to express more outrage about the tactics used a ICEs unwillingness to provide the city with more information about it’s operations in New Bedford.
The couple cooperated with the officer except that it was waiting for their attorney to arrive before they exited the vehicle. Our constitution and laws guarantees legal representation and that’s what they were asking for.
Understand that ICE is America’s Gestapo and they won’t stop with immigrants . They will come after those to protest the Trump administration.
“AND THEN THEY CAME FOR ME”
The couple cooperated with the officer EXCEPT………..
You should have stopped right there. By your own admission, they did not cooperate. You have the right to remain silent not the right to wait for your taxpayer funded lawyer.