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Video: Federal agents smash car window, detain Guatemalan man with ‘no criminal conduct’ in New Bedford
An immigration officer took a large sledgehammer and broke a backseat window to gain entry while the couple was waiting for their lawyer to arrive.
Federal agents took a sledgehammer to a Guatemalan couple’s car window in the streets of New Bedford Monday to detain a man with no criminal record, their lawyer said.
Juan Francisco Méndez, 29, was on his way to the dentist Monday with his wife when their Toyota was pulled over, their attorney, Ondine Galvez Sniffin, told Boston.com.
They kept their windows rolled up while talking to federal immigration officers, according to a video of the incident, telling the officers in Spanish they were awaiting their lawyer and asking if there was an arrest warrant.
“Abogada viene en camino,” Francisco Méndez said to the officers, meaning their lawyer was on her way.
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In the video, the couple sit waiting for their lawyer. A rosary hangs from the rearview mirror, and Francisco Méndez at one point keeps both hands on the wheel. His wife speaks to the officers, through the closed window, with formal language in Spanish.
A federal immigration officer, with a vest that read “police” and what appears to be an ICE badge on his holster, gestures for Francisco Méndez’s wife to lower the window to “hablar,” or talk.
Another officer then tells Francisco Méndez and his wife in Spanish that they could do it the easy or hard way, saying the couple could open the door for the agents to take him or they would break the window.
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After Francisco Méndez’s wife repeats that they are waiting for their lawyer to be present, one of the officers takes a large sledgehammer to break a backseat window to gain entry, before the video ends.
“The agents reached in, opened the front door, dragged both him and his wife out of the car, arrested him, and put him in their vehicle,” Galvez Sniffin said. “I have never heard of this level of brutality.”
Wife has asylum, and ‘by virtue of being married, he’s also an asylee,” lawyer says
The couple, who are legally married and have a 9-year-old in the New Bedford Public School system, are originally from Guatemala. Francisco Méndez’s wife and his son were both granted political asylum last year after turning themselves into immigration officials in 2023, their lawyer said.
Francisco Méndez, who entered the country in 2021 without legal authorization, began proceedings after his wife and child were granted asylum, according to Galvez Sniffin. He began the process in October, had the paperwork filed in November, and was fingerprinted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency in December.
“If he had been in court with her, he would have simultaneously received asylee status from the immigration judge, but because he never turned himself in, because he was not in proceedings, he wasn’t able to get that protection at the same time formally,” Galvez Sniffin said, “but essentially by virtue of being married, he’s also an asylee.”
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Francisco Méndez has no criminal record, according to his lawyer, and a search of available court records in New Bedford yielded no results.
“I wouldn’t have filed anything on his behalf if I knew that he had a prior criminal action because that would just be putting him in the lion’s den,” Galvez Sniffin said. He and his wife both work in the area, and he’s the main breadwinner for the family, she said.
While the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s inmate tracker hasn’t been updated to reflect Francisco Méndez’s whereabouts, Galvez Sniffin said he is being held at Strafford County Corrections in Dover, New Hampshire. His lawyer said he has a hearing scheduled for next month, but it’s not noted in the court system yet.
“The anger, the violence that the agents exerted and my clients, their quiet humility, their respectfulness, and in the face of a very scary situation, they did not lose control. They were asserting their rights, and they were completely disregarded,” Galvez Sniffin said. “They were very, very respectful and very humble, and it was for naught because the agents didn’t care.”
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ICE did not return a request for comment.
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