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NEW BEDFORD — Federal agents arrested two Guatemalan men, one with a criminal record, in New Bedford’s North End early Wednesday morning as they were heading to work. The detainment marks at least 17 people who have been arrested in the city since Jan. 20 as part of the Trump administration’s “enhanced” operation in Massachusetts to detain and deport immigrants.
Federal agents wearing bulletproof vests — one of them bearing an ATF logo on the front — approached the men, Jose DeLeon Ventura and Andres Colaj Olmos, on Coggeshall Street, near the Market Basket, around 5:30 a.m., according to Adrian Ventura, executive director of the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores (CCT) in New Bedford.
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Ventura said he received a voicemail from a man reporting a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement presence in front of Popeyes and McDonald’s, according to a recording reviewed by The Light.
The caller told Ventura that he was leaving his apartment a few blocks from McDonald’s when he saw three agents approaching workers and asking for their documents.
“Witnesses tell me that the agents approached them very calmly and quietly,” Ventura said. “They asked for their documents and told them they were looking for them.”
Around 6 a.m., Ventura received another call — this time from DeLeon Ventura’s brother, who said DeLeon Ventura had called him to report the arrest.
According to Adrian Ventura, the two men who were arrested are of undocumented status, while a third man, also a worker, was not detained because his documentation was in order.
Ventura said the men are painters and were wearing work clothes. Colaj Olmos requested a change of clothes be brought to the Burlington Detention Center, where he is being held, Ventura said.
Court records reviewed by The Light show DeLeon Ventura, 30, has a criminal record in New Bedford: two charges in 2023 for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol; and another two in 2024 for driving with a suspended license and without an inspection sticker, both of which were dismissed.
For the OUI charges, he is on probation through January 2026, court records show, and could have the charges dismissed on the condition he completes a state-mandated alcohol education program.
It is unclear if Colaj Olmos has a criminal history. Adrian Ventura said he does not, and a search within the court system by The Light did not yield results for him.
An ICE spokesperson did not respond to questions Wednesday on why federal agents arrested DeLeon Ventura and Colaj Olmos, and whether Colaj Olmos has a criminal record.
Wednesday’s arrests come on the heel of an April 14 operation during which a Guatemalan immigrant with no Massachusetts criminal record was arrested on Tallman Street after federal agents shattered the glass on his vehicle with an axe as he and his wife waited inside the car for their lawyer to arrive.
Juan Francisco Méndez, 29, who was taken to a correctional facility in New Hampshire, has been in the United States for two years and was undocumented, but pursuing an adjustment of his immigration status, according to his attorney, Ondine Gálvez. Méndez’s wife, Marilú Domingo Ortiz, a beneficiary of an asylum program, had petitioned for him so he could regularize his status. They are the parents of one child.
In an incident that took place in late March, a 32-year-old New Bedford resident who has lived in the United States since he was 2 years old, was detained after returning from a vacation abroad. Rui Murras was arrested on a decade-old drug charge that had been resolved, according to his lawyer. He was brought to the Cumberland County Jail in Portland, Maine. Born in Portugal, Murras has lived nearly his entire life in New Bedford. Supporters say he has been working full-time and sharing a home with his longtime partner.
Between March 18 and 23, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 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 has confirmed that at least eight of those arrests took place in New Bedford.
Among those detained were José Antonio Garcia Garcia, 39, and Miguel Ordoñez Sorocop, 35. According to several teenagers who were in the home at the time, ICE agents entered the house on Viall Street without a warrant on March 21, using a battering ram and wearing military-style fatigues. The agents pointed their weapons at the children’s faces as they were eating breakfast before school.
Others detained in New Bedford include three Guatemalan workers from the Minit Man Car Wash on Purchase Street and one worker from Bob’s Tire on Brook Street. These arrests are part of a broader enforcement trend in the city that has raised concerns among local residents and community leaders.
Email Eleonora Bianchi at ebianchi@newbedfordlight.org
Email Gerardo Beltrán Salinas at gerardo@newbedfordlight.org
Anastasia E. Lennon contributed to this report.
Not just the Light, but somehow main stream media has put forth the erroneous talking point that ICE can only arrest and remove those with criminal histories?? This is incorrect! I venture to guess they don’t realize that those in a removable status will be removed at ICE’s discretion. Tom Homan has said this a number of times! Does no one listen, or is the criminal history talking point some sort of standard the media thinks they can set?
Since the regime’s justification for the extreme ramp-up in ICE activities has explicitly been to get criminals off the streets, I imagine that news organizations are mentioning when detained immigrants do or do not have known criminal histories to provide information about whether actual actions are matching up to their stated intent.
Also, very important to understand that ‘Deportation’ aka ‘expatriate’ is NOT a criminal matter; it is a civil proceeding …thus the due process involved in a deportation action is very limited…essentially just an ‘identity hearing’ wherein the identity of the subject individual is confirmed.
If you are an illegal alien or on a Visa (a permitted guest for a specific time)… you can be deported for a good reason, a bad reason, or for no reason at all.
And yet again there you have. This is playing out across the state and country. So save yourselves the ink about local immigration organizations fear, concern, whatever. If ANYONE is here illegally they are fair game. However I will qualify that by saying grab the criminals first.
Unfortunately, The New Bedford Light adopts the fake term of the Left
‘Undocumented immigrants’
Nowhere in the Titles of the Immigration & Nationality Act (8 USC 1101) is the term ‘undocumented’ used. The correct term is ‘Alien’ ..the term ‘Illegal Alien’ is not used but is implied by the definitions of the Act wherein it states ‘No ALIEN paroled shall be considered Admitted’
That is why the millions of ‘Paroled’ Aliens that Biden unlawfully flooded into the nation have no legal status (thus ‘illegal aliens’) because the very concept of ‘parole’ is that the alien is allowed to be physically present due to extreme circumstances (such as ,,,so many came at once we can’t conduct a timely hearing) but is in legal ‘limbo’ until a immigration hearing occurs wherein a status is adjudicated.
In the past the far majority of paroled aliens were denied entry and ordered removed.
As we know, language is important to control the narrative, so the Left always focused in changing the language.
Well said.
I agree, many people have made comments here, and in other news articles that the person detained doesn’t have a criminal record, and they don’t understand why they were questioned by ICE, or other Immigration authorities, nobody said criminals only, what was clearly stated was the criminals were being targeted first, but all illegal immigrants will be deported.
Thanks New Bedford Light for reporting on the brownshirts activity in NB.
Since the light didn’t report on Biden’s wide open borders? Blame Biden for letting everyone in without proper vetting and documentation and spreading them all over the country. This is a correction, and 17 surely isn’t correction enough. Looking forward to more stories like these.
US Constitution still requires that due process be given to all US residents.
They’re not residents. They’re invaders. Is someone who breaks into your house a resident or an invader? Such hypocrisy.
Illegal immigration is a crime. Lol add that to their “no criminal record”
The crime of escaping brutal Conservative governments.
“The detainment marks at least 17 people who have been arrested in the city since Jan. 20 as part of the Trump administration’s “enhanced” operation in Massachusetts to detain and deport immigrants. ”
Accuracy in reporting is important. You purposely left the word ILLEGAL out. These weren’t ordinary immigrants, they are ILLEGAL aliens one of who has a criminal history. The democrats have been playing verbal gymnastics referring to ILLEGALS as undocumented immigrants or just immigrants. They broke into our country and broke the law. They need to go back and to hell with due process. They didn’t follow due process breaking into the US so why do they expect it now? It’s just a delaying tactic by the dems to keep them here. Self hating guilty white liberals, aka activists, are the problem.