A Massachusetts household is demanding solutions from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), complaining its brokers smashed a automotive window with a big hammer and detained a person whom they are saying had utilized for asylum.
A lawyer for the household additionally claims brokers weren’t in search of the person within the automotive, Juan Francisco Mendez, after they grabbed him on Monday in New Bedford whereas he was driving to a dental appointment. He’s now believed to have been taken into Ice detention.
The lawyer, Ondine Galvez-Sniffin, instructed the Related Press in an interview that the brokers claimed they had been in search of one other man with a distinct identify earlier than they dragged Mendez and his spouse out of the automotive.
The incident, recorded on video by Mendez’s spouse, Marilu Domingo Ortiz, reveals Ice brokers utilizing a long-handled hammer to smash the automotive window to apparently seize Mendez. The household believes he’s being held at a facility in Dover, New Hampshire.
“Once I arrived on the scene, my shopper’s spouse was sobbing. She was crying. She was shaking,” Galvez-Sniffin stated, including that Mendez yelled “assist me” in Spanish as he was pushed away in handcuffs.
“I walked over to the automotive and I see the busted window, the glass all around the again seat, and I used to be shocked,” the lawyer added. “I’ve been doing immigration work for 27 years and this was the primary time that I noticed such violent, drastic measures being taken.”
A spokesperson for Ice didn’t return repeated requests for remark.
One other lawyer for Mendez, Ryan Sullivan, stated a federal decide in New Hampshire dominated on Wednesday that the federal government should give his attorneys 72 hours discover earlier than transferring him wherever. Sullivan believes that’s sufficient time to find out subsequent steps in his case.
Ortiz and her nine-year-old son have already been given authorized safety below an asylum standing, over fears of dealing with persecution in the event that they returned to their native Guatemala. Mendez was within the strategy of making use of for what is named by-product asylum, the place you may be granted asylum if a member of the family already has it.
The lady stated she was scared when Ice broke into their automotive and by no means anticipated somebody from her household could be detained like this.
“We got here right here to do trustworthy work. To struggle for our household,” Ortiz stated by an interpreter. “What they did, or what they’re doing proper now, no, it’s not honest. We don’t deserve that remedy.”
Ortiz stated she was frightened concerning the toll the detention was taking, particularly on her son. “He has already stopped consuming due to what we’re going by,” she stated. “I simply hope that they launch my husband so he can come again with us and that my son may be with him as effectively.”
New Bedford’s mayor, Jon Mitchell, in a publish on X, stated the incident “raises questions that require clear solutions”, together with why native police weren’t alerted beforehand.
He additionally questioned whether or not Ice brokers are concentrating on criminals because the Trump administration promised or, quite, “participating in an indiscriminate round-up of people with unsure immigration standing”.
Galvez-Sniffin stated Mendez had been within the nation for 4 years and labored within the seafood business in New Bedford, that he had no legal report was making use of for asylum. He was fingerprinted in December, she stated, including that nothing turned up when it comes to a legal report.
“There actually was no purpose to deal with him the best way that he and his spouse had been handled.” Galvez-Sniffin stated, including that brokers refused to take a look at the paperwork exhibiting that he had utilized for asylum.
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