Marilu Méndez said that when the ice vehicles began to follow her and her husband on Monday and then surrounded her car in Tallman Street on New Bedford, she took out her cell phone and began recording.
His video shows an immigration agent and customs compliance with the United States who uses a large hammer to break the posterior passenger window of his car.
Marilu said the agents were focused on her husband, Juan, but continued to call him “Antonio”, the name of another man who lives in his building.
Thinking that this was just a case of wrong identity, the Mendezes called their lawyer, who told them to stay in the car and did not give the agents any information until it came there.
His lawyer, Ondine Galvez Sniffin, told NBC10 Boston that Juan Méndez is a Guatemalan immigrant who is undocumented but in the process of changing his migratory state and has no criminal record.
Marilu is in the country with asylum.
But instead of waiting for their lawyer, ICE agents broke the car window, broke into the vehicle and dragged the couple.
“They looked for a hammer and broke the car window and dragged us out of the car,” Marilu told Telemundo New England in Spanish. “Three ice agents held my husband. They were unjustly taken out … I tried to talk to them and ask them if they had the order to stop him. They did not answer me or show me anything. They were not right to stop it. We have been following the rules of this country. We are doing things in the right way. That is why we have a lawyer.”
His lawyer said that Juan Méndez is now detained at a detention center in Dover, New Hampshire, with an audience scheduled for May 7.
“My clients were within their rights, they were very respectful and followed and exercised their rights and indicated their right to remain silent and affirming their right to have legal representation and found each other with brutality,” said Galvez Sniffin. “They found themselves violent.”
ICE has not responded to the requests for comments from NBC10 Boston.
The mayor of New Bedford, Jon Mitchell, issued a statement on social networks on Tuesday.
“The incident raises questions that require clearer answers,” he said. “Recently, ICE seems to have broken from its long practice to alert our police department before planned operations, a decision that raises security risks for officers, ice agents and the public equally.” It can also prevent opportunities for the Local Police to help descale tense situations like the latter. ”
Mitchell said there have been no indications of ICE if their agents are focusing on the apprehension of the criminals condemned or is being involved in “an indiscriminate summary of individuals with an uncertain immigrant status.” He added that the public deserves an explanation of the Trump administration.
