Video shows the moment ICE agents smashed a car window and forcibly removed a man in New Bedford, Massachusetts on Monday. His attorney says he is not the man the agents were looking for.
Juan Francisco-Mendez, 29, has no criminal record and was awaiting his final documentation to solidify his asylum status.
His attorney told WBZ that federal agents took the wrong person, mistaking her client for someone else.
Case of mistaken identity?
“They said they were looking for a certain individual, by a different name,” said immigration attorney Ondine Galvez Sniffin. “I said that’s not my client… I know my client’s history, that is not him.”
Francisco-Mendez’s wife, Marilu Domingo Ortiz, and 9-year-old son are protected under an asylum status after persecution in their home country of Guatemala.
Domingo Ortiz said it was terrifying to see ICE agents smash her husband’s window and forcibly grab him in front of her. “In that moment she was very shocked, she didn’t know what to do, what to think. She was just there, just terrified,” said Domingo Ortiz, through a translator.
When agents approached Francisco-Mendez in his car, they were asking for a man by the name of Antonio, someone who used to live in his building, according to his attorney. Mendez told them that it wasn’t him.
In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said Juan Francisco-Mendez “is an illegally present Guatemalan alien.”
ICE agent smashes window with axe
The agents demanded Francisco-Mendez get out of the car. He said he was waiting on his lawyer, and that’s when video shows an agent smashed his car window.
Community activist Adrian Ventura said he saw it all unfold. “They acted very violently,” he said through an interpreter. “I was there when that guy was carrying an axe, or a hammer and started to break the windows and it was like there was an explosion.”
By the time Francisco-Mendez’s lawyer arrived on scene, he was already under arrest.
Sniffin says it’s a terrible misstep by the agents who carried out the actions, and now it’s leaving the family with difficult questions left unanswered.
“I don’t have any answers”
“She asked me when will he be coming home? and I don’t have any answers for her,” Sniffin said.
Sniffin said she has been able to locate Francisco-Mendez, who is being held at a facility in Dover, New Hampshire. She hasn’t been able to receive any information on charges or a reason for why he’s still in the detention center.
“Right now, she desperately wants him home… she’s trying her best to be strong for her son because her son keeps asking where his dad is, and she’s trying to be strong for their son, but she needs him,” said Domingo Ortiz through the translator.
ICE on New Bedford arrest
“Juan Francisco-Mendez, 29, is an illegally present Guatemalan alien who was detained by ICE Boston in New Bedford, Massachusetts, April 14,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to WBZ. “During the course of his arrest, he 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.”
Maryland woman detained in similar fashion
Last week, video captured a similar confrontation in Maryland, when an ICE agent smashed through a car window to detain a woman. 51-year-old Elsy Noemi Berrios into custody in Westminster, Maryland outside of Baltimore.
When Berrios refused to leave her car, agents broke her car window to unlock the vehicle before taking her into custody. The video was captured by Berrios’ daughter.
