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NEW BEDFORD — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a Salvadoran man Monday on his way to court in the first known immigration detention in more than a month in the city. 

Juan Carlos Abarca-Jovel

ICE arrested Juan Carlos Abarca-Jovel, 48, an immigrant from El Salvador, while on his way to trial at New Bedford District Court. This makes him the 42nd confirmed ICE detainee, according to data collected by The Light and apparently the first confirmed in New Bedford since June 19. His immigration status remains unclear.

According to District Court documents obtained by The Light, Abarca-Jovel faces a misdemeanor assault and battery charge from February, when he allegedly slapped his adult son. The court calendar for Monday had a trial set for 8:30 a.m. but after his arrest, the docket report showed the charges were dismissed due to failure to prosecute. It also had a note: “Def. taken by ICE from courthouse.” 

Abarca-Jovel’s family declined requests for comment. The Bristol County District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on the case. The ICE detainee locator shows he is in custody, though it does not show his current whereabouts.

“We’ve seen people picked up before they go to court,” said Corinn Williams, director of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts. “We knew this was coming, this close monitoring of the courts.”

Until today, ICE had moved its focus to other parts of the country, such as Los Angeles, and had remained quiet locally. The last operation carried out in the city, in June, was the largest locally since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.  Agents arrested eight Mexican men newly arrived in New Bedford in a raid on a home at Cove and South Second streets. 

Williams said she’s not surprised to hear of today’s arrest, adding she expected ICE agents to return.

“I imagine [the lull] was a question of resources and how they’ve been allocating resources to other places like Providence and Los Angeles,” she said. 

The number of Enforcement and Removal Operations agents working under ICE has remained relatively static at around 5,000 agents over the last decade, according to its fiscal year 2024 annual report submitted in December. Yet that may soon change, as ICE is set to become the most well-financed law enforcement agency in the federal bureaucracy under the budget bill just signed into law by Trump.

The bill increases ICE’s annual budget from around $8 billion to over $27 billion, a 218% increase. It means that the agency would have a budget larger than that of the armed forces of Turkey, NATO’s second largest military. 

The agency will look to double the number of ERO agents in its ranks with the funding. It will also aim to use $45 billion to increase its detention capacity through new 287(g) agreements, contracts with private prison companies, and new detention facilities, to increase the number of beds  on hand from 56,000 to over 100,000.

As of June 29, ICE had almost 58,000 people in detention nationwide, according to data from Transactional Record Access Clearinghouse.

Nonetheless, Williams said she is ready for more arrests to come.

“It’s not surprising,” she said. “They’ve always been here.”

Email Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org

13 replies on “ICE makes first arrest in weeks in the city’s South End”

  1. With Massachusetts being one of the top five states in America for illegal immigrants to live in, and receive benefits including Healthcare, and a Drivers License in their native language, there are thousands of illegal aliens residing here. ICE should create a top line with a phone number, and a small reward if the tip leads ICE to finding, and removing all illegal immigrants in MA, and throughout America.

    1. Now ICE wants citizens to turn in illegal immigrants? Are you kidding me? Do your own dirty work!! I am not working for a Dictator, like Trump!! I was born in a free country and I am against what that nasty president stands for!!

  2. I think is not fair for the working people, just like the government said at fist his goin to deport the people with cases not the 1 working, and he fell his words, and I think the construction site ,the farm ,hotels, landscaping,,they staying with no workers and and more

  3. How about a study on the impact of ICE on the individual industries that are being targeted?

    1. If the companies within any industry hires illegal immigrants, the companies should be fined heavily, and the illegal immigrants they employ should be removed, placed in a holding area, and sent back to the country they came from. As a deterrent to people from anywhere in the world crossing our borders, and refusing to apply in their own countries, they should be banned from entering the US permanently.

    1. ICE is doing its job to track down and find illegal immigrants, then deporting them. If you think a good comparison is the Gestapo, you should pick up a book sometime to find out the difference. America voted for a massive deportation, your side obviously lost. If you think what you’ve seen is bad, you’re not prepared for the next phase.

  5. Was Abarca-Jovel’s defense atty paid by MA taxpayers or did he hire a private atty? More subsidies for illegals? I would think that living in the shadows and flying under ICE’s radar means keeping your hands to yourself?

  7. How many people commentating know their own immigrant stories. I love these people who say “ we came here the right way”. They don’t even know the history of immigration law in this country which for decades was designed to keep out people from southern Europe including Portugal until Senator John Kennedy in 1958 responding to a humanitarian crisis in the Azores vastly increased the numbers allowed in.
    The inhumanity of some many is despicable.

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