NEW BEDFORD, MA – A Guatemalan immigrant and asylum seeker awaiting his hearing was forcibly removed from his car, along with his wife, and wrongly detained last week, according to the Office of Congressman William Keating in a letter to the DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, FBI Director Kash Patel, and leadership of both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The 29-year old man did not have a warrant out for his arrest when he was taken into custody last Monday, according to The New Republic, adding the man was sitting in his car with his wife when ICE officials stopped the couple.
They then told the agents that they were waiting for their lawyer to arrive before speaking to the officers, but in the meantime, his wife asked if ICE had a warrant for her husband’s arrest, to which they remained silent, according to reports by The New Republic.
The New Republic wrote that following the agents’ denial to let the two leave, ICE officials persisted in asking the woman “to roll down her window to speak.”
The ICE officers then escalated the situation, smashing the car’s back window with what The New Republic describes to be a pickax, and then grabbing the couple out of the car.
In a video released by The New Bedford Light, the man’s wife explained what happened, stating, “They forcibly removed me and my husband… They pulled me out of the car violently. They treated me badly, too.”
Following the man’s detention, the family’s lawyer arrived, explaining to WBZ-TV CBS Boston that ICE was “looking for a certain individual, by a different name. And I said that’s not my client.”
Instead, the Guatemalan man who ICE actually arrested has been in the country for two years without a criminal record and is currently waiting for documentation to solidify his asylum status, The New Republic wrote.
In an official statement addressing the wrongful arrest, ICE officials said it “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,” as reported by The New Republic.
However, the Mayor of New Bedford, Jon Mitchell, said that in this arrest, ICE officers did not alert city officials prior to the incident, a break in their long-standing practice, according to The New Republic, adding ICE agents also gave the wrong address to the city when finally reporting the arrest to the police.
Noting a broader trend, Mitchell emphasized lacking and “inconsistent” communication with ICE since the start of the second Trump term, as reported by The New Republic.
“We are not criminals. We are hardworking people who came here to fight for our families and for a better future.” – Detained man
While in a facility in Dover, New Hampshire, the detained man said in a statement to The Light, “We are not criminals. We are hardworking people who came here to fight for our families and for a better future.”
