ICE agents smash car window to detain Guatemalan man in Massachusetts
By John Atwater & Alex Svenson
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NEW BEDFORD, Massachusetts (WCVB) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took a Guatemalan immigrant, who claims to have no criminal history, into custody in New Bedford on Monday.
New video shows the agents shattering the window of 29-year-old Juan Francisco Méndez’s car to detain him. The video was shot by his wife and provided to NewsCenter 5 by his lawyer, Ondine Galvez Sniffin.
Galvez Sniffin told NewsCenter 5 that Méndez has been in the U.S. for two years and has applied for asylum, but it has not yet been approved.
Additionally, Galvez Sniffin told NewsCenter 5 that his wife has been approved for asylum.
“This is completely off the charts,” Galvez Sniffin said. “As her husband, he derives the same status that she has, so he is also protected from being removed back to the country.”
The agents approached them as they were in the car together on Monday.
They said they were waiting for Galvez Sniffin to arrive when the agents smashed the window.
Mendez is now being held at a facility in New Hampshire.
Galvez Sniffin said she is now struggling to get more information regarding his arrest.
His wife and 9-year-old son are now wondering about the fate of their father.
“She didn’t know they would go to such an extreme length and do such a horrible thing,” Méndez’s wife said through a translator. “She was shocked and scared.”
Méndez’s wife said the ICE agents were looking for a man named Antonio.
“The agents were looking for another man,” the translator said. “She thinks the agents were confused, and they got the wrong person.”
As the Mendez family and Galvez Sniffin wait for answers, they said they are worried about the tactics ICE agents are using to make arrests.
“Nobody is stopping them, they’re acting with impunity, they’re just going to keep going, and I fear it’s going to get worse,” Galvez Sniffin said.
NewsCenter 5 reached out to ICE multiple times over the course of the day on Tuesday and did not hear back from them on why Méndez was arrested.
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