|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
NEW BEDFORD — Congressman Bill Keating is demanding answers from top Trump administration officials about the violent arrest of an undocumented Guatemalan man in New Bedford on Monday.
In a letter on Thursday to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel, Keating said the man, Juan Francisco Méndez, 29, was in the process of receiving derivative asylum status through his wife, an asylee, and requested that he be reunited with his wife and son, absent a criminal record.
Given that the United States has already recognized the asylum of Méndez’s wife and their son, “it is of the utmost importance that Mr. Méndez’s application for asylum be reviewed forthwith and a determination made [as] to his asylum claim,” Keating said.
“Until this determination is made no action should be undertaken to remove Mr. Méndez from the United States,” Keating said. “I respectfully request the full and fair consideration of Mr. Méndez’s application on an expedited basis and further request that, absent a criminal record, Mr. Méndez be reunited with his family until his application is adjudicated.”
Méndez was arrested Monday morning on Tallman Street in New Bedford. Federal agents shattered the glass on his vehicle as he and his wife waited inside the car for their lawyer to arrive. The Light was the first news outlet to report on Méndez’s arrest, which has since attracted national attention.
Méndez is currently being held at Strafford County Department of Corrections in New Hampshire as he awaits a May hearing on whether he can be removed from the country, his attorney, Ondine Gálvez, told The Light on Thursday.
Gálvez said an attorney in New Hampshire has filed a petition to keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from transferring Méndez to a facility outside the state. She said that the petition gives her team a crucial buffer, allowing time to seek an emergency stay if ICE tries to move him before his first court appearance.
She is waiting for the court records to be filed in the system so she can file a bond motion to release Méndez from custody. Once materials are filed, she can also see what evidence the government has submitted against him.
Gálvez said Méndez has no criminal record. A name and date of birth search in the Massachusetts judicial system showed that Méndez has no criminal record in the state, according to a clerk at the New Bedford District Court.
In his letter, Keating sent more than a dozen questions about the “shocking circumstances” to the federal agencies, including to ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons. Some of Keating’s questions are similar to unanswered questions The Light has asked of ICE.
Keating’s letter also raises the question of whether this was a case of mistaken identity, asking Noem, Patel and Lyons if Méndez was the intended target of the Monday operation.
Gálvez said she believes Méndez may have been detained because of mistaken identity, but so far, she has not been able to confirm it. Méndez’s wife, Marilú Domingo Ortiz, said in an interview with The Light Wednesday that she heard agents asking for someone named Antonio when they exited their vehicles.
According to Ortiz, the couple had just left their home when they noticed unfamiliar vehicles parked along their street. Despite this, they continued on their way until three cars blocked them in. Armed men wearing green bulletproof vests ordered them to get out of the vehicle, she said.
In a video she recorded and shared with The Light, she can be heard asking the officers through the car window if they had a warrant, and informing them that their attorney was on the way.
“Why were ICE and FBI officers deployed on April 14th in New Bedford? Was Mr. Méndez the target of a warrant or detainer order at the time of this incident?” Keating asks. “Were federal agents seeking to execute a warrant or detainer order on another individual on the 14th?”
He also asks what probable cause officers had to detain Méndez, whether he has a criminal record that makes his presence in the United States a risk to Americans, and if the “violent destruction” of the car window complies with ICE and the FBI’s use of force policy.
ICE spokesperson James Covington in an email to The Light on Wednesday stated that Méndez 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.
Méndez’s wife was granted asylum in February 2024 by immigration judge Nancy Eileen Griffiths, according to the couple’s attorney.
Asylum seekers are people who have come to the U.S., or to a U.S. border crossing, and made a claim that they are fleeing their home country due to persecution or fear of persecution.
They are monitored while in the U.S. until their claim is adjudicated and must appear in court to argue why they should be granted asylum, or permission to stay in the U.S. They can apply for a green card one year after being granted asylum.
In 2023, nearly 4,000 non-citizens were granted asylum in Massachusetts, or a 20% grant rate, per CBS News.
In his first week in office, President Donald Trump through an executive order closed the program at the U.S.-Mexico border to new asylum requests. And just this week, the Justice Department directed immigration judges to expedite the review and denial of asylum to migrants whose applications they deem unlikely to succeed in order to relieve a case backlog, the New York Times reported.
In practice, this means judges can now opt to drop “legally deficient” asylum cases without holding a hearing.
“Does the Department of Homeland Security have any evidence that Mr. Méndez’s derivative asylum claim is not likely to succeed on its face? If so, what is that evidence?” Keating asked.
Méndez has been in the United States for at least two years, his lawyer said. According to Keating’s letter to federal officials, he began the process of seeking derivative asylum in October, and submitted biometric information as part of the review to ICE in December.
“By law, if you’ve been granted asylum status, the law recognizes that immediate family members like spouses and children will also probably suffer the same harm,” said Gálvez. “So you do not have to re‑litigate your case and prove that you need asylum. So they just derive asylum through the spouse.”
“There is no excuse for how the Méndez family is being treated — they deserve answers, they deserve to be reunited, and they certainly should not live under the threat of their husband and father facing deportation to a country that the United States has already recognized as unsafe for them to return to,” Keating said in a statement.
“Sadly, the axe that shattered [Juan] Francisco and Marilú [Domingo Ortiz]’s car window in New Bedford is another tangible example of the Trump administration’s cruelty-first approach that is focused on tearing apart families and causing fear in the immigrant community,” Keating continued. “I will always stand for due process and the rule of law, and I will not rest until these abuses end.”
His remarks come after New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said Wednesday that ICE had provided “misleading” information in its notice to local law enforcement about Monday’s operation, and that the agency had not responded to requests for more information from the city.
The Light contacted DHS, FBI and ICE for comment Thursday afternoon.
Keating gave the agencies a deadline of April 21 to respond to his questions.
Gálvez, Méndez’s attorney, was pleased to hear of Keating’s demand.
“I’m glad that he’s taking a position on this,” she said. “That’s what we need right now.”
Gerardo Beltrán Salinas contributed to this report.
Email Eleonora Bianchi at ebianchi@newbedfordlight.org.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
It’s weird to me a lot of the same people crying about how can anyone treat another human this way by smashing a car window are the same ones who are out vandalizing cyber trucks and applauding Luigi Mangioni for taking a mans life just for holding a position at a company. Thats ok to do to a fellow human but smashing the car window of a non citizen and taking them into custody is the worst thing to happen to the human race. Sure it’s wrong and a terrible but let’s keep it consistent.
Wrong.
And are you consistent? Sounds like you might be good with this situation as you reduce it to “smashing a car window”. If you watched the video, it was a hate filled attack on people who clearly don’t know if they will next find themselves shipped to a concentration camp. These neo-Nazi type thugs were doing a bit more than just “smashing a window” it was designed to send a signal – anyone can be taken with no explanation and minimal options for recourse. Those thugs are probably “good Christian” I’m sure…. next stop, U.S. citizens will be on the menu.
sorry. When law enforcement asks you to exit the vehicle you do so. Otherwise they will remove you. The is true for citizens and non citizens. You DO NOT have the right to sit in your vehicle and ‘wait for your lawyer”
I lost all sympathy when they did this
Now that’s the organization I’m ready, willing, and able to fund,
Like I commented earlier this week. Nobody in MA wants to cooperate with Authorities then ICE is certainly under no obligation to communicate when asked, especially from every looney elected the state is burdened with but thats another story. This story and others similar are be coming one big yaaaaaaaawn. 🥱🥱🥱
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire
It’s nice to read that Congressman Keating is “respectfully” answering this travesty of justice. It would be VERY nice to see him at a protest tomorrow.
It’s only April, what are you Democrats going to do when Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, Welfare, Obamacare and Food Stamps are nothing more than a memory that you tell your grandchildren about when you’re standing in the bread lines behind the illegal immigrants, I can’t wait to watch it all unravel…… GO ELON, GO DOGE!!!!!!!
Thank you New Bedford Light for your excellent reporting. You are quoted in Yvonne Abraham’s column in today’s Boston Globe. I am grateful for you speaking truth to power.
These were nothing but gestapo tactics. The way they are doing things makes you wonder if you are next
Ah, the ever-unfolding theater of bureaucracy and shadows. Congressman Keating’s demand for answers regarding the immigrant’s violent arrest is a commendable act of oversight. Yet, one must ponder: are we witnessing genuine accountability or merely a performance to appease public outcry? In the clandestine corridors of power, truth often dons a mask. Let us hope this inquiry pierces the veil, revealing the actors and their scripts. After all, even the most intricate plays deserve a discerning audience.
Exactly, and what makes it burn even more are the rest of the Massachusetts lawmakers dominated by liberal Democrats like Congressman Keating, after finding they had spent over $1 BILLION dollars last year supporting ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS in Massachusetts, they voted themselves a 10% pay raise, and the liberal socialist Governor Healy got a 12% pay raise right before the tax payers in Massachusetts received the highest gas & electric bills on record, I’m sure that’s to offset the cost of the offshore wind joke, and taxing the excise tax, and the proposed tax on candy will offset everything.
I hope that deep dark recession / Great Depression II is right after September followed by the next worldwide COVID that leads to the thinning of the herd, that way ALL Democrats can pay for the shaft they gave America via Central America Poverty. 👍✌️
If you had followed the commands from law enforcement, you would not have a broken window, if you would have migrated legally and followed directions from law enforcement you would not have a broken window
Mr. Keating can continue writing letters, asking questions, requesting details, and setting deadlines for every federal agency he wants, from DHS, ICE, FBI, DOJ, INS, and the New Hampshire Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte, but the facts remain the same.
Mendez is an illegal alien who violated U.S. Immigration laws, that makes him a criminal who admitted being in America for two years. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents are seeking, detaining, and deporting Illegal Immigrants, they’re not required to inform the Mayor, or local police of any ongoing operations, specially in MA, NY, CA, IL, and other states who are actively teaching illegal immigrants how to evade ICE agents who don’t need a warrant to detain illegal immigrants, and they’re not required to wait for an attorney hired by the illegal immigrants, Mendez failed to obey, and yield to a federal law enforcement officer.
Mendez has admitted to being an undocumented, illegal immigrant in America at the invitation of Democrats like Mr. Keating, and Governor Healy, if he was truly seeking asylum, why did he wait until October, after being in America illegally for two years? Because his wife and child have recently been granted asylum, so after receiving the news from his immigration attorney that he can now seek asylum, and probably will be granted due to the same “danger in Guatemala that his wife convinced a liberal Democrat that she faced? That all sounds too convenient to me, and since I’m one of the law abiding American Citizens who works for a living, I’m obligated to pay higher federal, state, local, and property taxes each year to support the illegal immigrants, and educate their children, and pay for their free breakfast and free lunch programs in public schools.
There’s no evidence of mistaken identity, and Immigration, Customs Enforcement officers are hired, and they’re paid by American tax payers to find, detain, and deport illegal immigrants like Mendez who break the law, and he is supposed to be deported, and if his wife and child are that important, they can self deport and join him, if not, than we can all choose the laws we want to obey, and ignore the laws we don’t like, them every American pays for it!!!