Mayor Jon Mitchell: “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.”
Originally published in The New Bedford Light, a publication partner of Ocean State Stories.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell answers reporters’ questions at a press conference about the incident on Tallman Street. Credit: Eleonora Bianchi / The New Bedford Light
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.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell answers reporters’ questions at Wedensday’s press conference. Credit: Eleonora Bianchi / The New Bedford Light
“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.
The Light spoke with Marilú Domingo Ortiz, who during the interview got a surprise phone call from her husband Juan Francisco Méndez, who is detained at a correctional facility in New Hampshire. Credit: Gerardo Beltrán Salinas
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.
Immigration agents blocked the car that a Guatemalan man and his wife were driving in and smashed a window to detain him without presenting a warrant on Monday. Credit: Gerardo Beltran Salinas with provided video
In late March, ICE conducted what it called an “enhanced enforcement operation” across Massachusetts, resulting in the detention of 370 individuals the agency described as “criminal aliens.” 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
