***NO WARRANT! NO CRIMINAL RECORD! PROPERTY DAMAGE! FEAR & INTIMIDATION! NO IDENTIFICATION ON ICE GESTAPO!***** — Lawyer: Federal agents detain Guatemalan man, 29, with no criminal record by Gerardo Beltran Salinas, The New Bedford Light: “A Guatemalan immigrant with no Massachusetts criminal record was arrested Monday on Tallman Street after federal agents shattered the glass on his vehicle as he and his wife waited inside the car for their lawyer to arrive."
A Guatemalan immigrant with no Massachusetts criminal record was arrested Monday on Tallman Street after federal agents shattered the glass on his vehicle as he and his wife waited inside the car for their lawyer to arrive. Juan Francisco Méndez, 29, who was taken to an undisclosed location, has been in the United States for two years and was undocumented, but pursuing an adjustment of his immigration status, according to his attorney, Ondine Gálvez. Méndez’s wife, Marilú, a beneficiary of an asylum program, had petitioned for him so he could regularize his status. They are the parents of one child. Gálvez said Méndez has no criminal record. A name and date of birth search in the Massachusetts judicial system showed that Méndez has no criminal record in the state, according to a clerk at the New Bedford District Court. According to Marilú, the couple had just left their home when they noticed unfamiliar vehicles parked along their street. Despite this, they continued on their way until three cars blocked them in. Armed men wearing green bulletproof vests ordered them to get out of the vehicle, she said. In video shot by Marilú and shared with The Light, one of the agents demanded that they open the door. Méndez replied that he would comply once his lawyer arrived, who was already on her way to assist him. “Roll down the window so we can talk,” another agent insisted, while Méndez’s wife asked if they had an arrest warrant for her or her husband. The tense standoff took about 30 minutes. The couple were taken from their car after an agent smashed in the rear right window. “They pulled us out violently. They treated us very harshly,” Méndez’s wife recalled through tears. “They are acting with total impunity,” said Gálvez, referring to the federal agents — one of whom was wearing a vest labeled “FBI.” “Imagine if a child had been in that car. I’m ashamed of what this country is becoming,” she added. Representatives from several local organizations, including the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, Community Economic Development Center, and Mujeres Victoriosa, arrived on the scene to support Méndez and his wife. The representatives tried to file a report with the local police. However, an officer from the New Bedford Police Department at first refused to take the complaint, stating that the federal agents were not accountable to municipal law enforcement, a Light reporter on the scene observed. However, a police officer later took the complaint and gave Méndez’s wife a piece of paper with an address and a serial number. On Monday afternoon, Méndez contacted his wife from custody. “He called me to ask for the lawyer’s phone number. He didn’t tell me where he is,” said Méndez’s wife. At least 15 people have been detained by federal agents in New Bedford since Jan. 20, the date the new administration took office. Between March 18 and 23, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted what it called an “enhanced enforcement operation” across Massachusetts, resulting in the detention of 370 individuals the agency described as “criminal aliens.” The Light has confirmed that at least eight of those arrests took place in New Bedford, bringing the city’s total to 15 ICE-related detentions since the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Among those detained were José Antonio Garcia Garcia, 39, and Miguel Ordoñez Sorocop, 35. According to several teenagers who were in the home at the time, ICE agents entered the house without a warrant on March 21, using a battering ram and wearing military-style fatigues. The agents pointed their weapons at the children’s faces as they were eating breakfast before school. Others detained in New Bedford include three Guatemalan workers from the Minit Man Car Wash on Purchase Street and one worker from Bob’s Tire on Brook Street. These arrests are part of a broader enforcement trend in the city that has raised concerns among local residents and community leaders. Email Gerardo Beltrán Salinas at gerardo@newbedfordlight.org Anastasia Lennon contributed reporting. ****DEPORTATION LUNACY! NO NOTICE! NO DUE PROCESS!**** TRUMP'S WAR ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT! — Vermont judge considers future hearing to transfer or release Rümeysa Öztürk by Sarah Betancourt, GBH News: “A federal judge in Vermont is considering whether to weigh in on the release or transfer of Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts university graduate student who was detained by immigration enforcement agents in Somerville last month." excerpt: A federal judge in Vermont is considering whether to weigh in on the release or transfer of Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts university graduate student who was detained by immigration enforcement agents in Somerville last month. In a hearing Monday, District of Vermont Judge William K. Sessions III said he’d take the federal government’s and Öztürk’s attorneys’ arguments under advisement. He could take the case under his jurisdiction and schedule a habeas hearing to consider her petition for release in May. The legal challenge over Öztürk’s detention is separate from the immigration proceedings underway, in which an immigration judge will decide whether or not to deport her. A district court could decide if her detention and circumstances of her arrest are unconstitutional. Öztürk is scheduled to have her first immigration court hearing in Louisiana on Wednesday, although is it only a preliminary hearing to set deadlines. Her attorneys this morning also asked an immigration court separately to consider bond. — Contempt case against ICE agent dismissed, but advocates still demand answers by Simón Rios, WBUR: “A federal judge has dismissed the contempt case against a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who arrested a man on his way out of a Boston court."
excerpt: The ordeal started last month, when Wilson Martell-Lebron of Saugus was facing trial for allegedly lying on a driver’s license application. As he walked out of the courthouse, Special Agent Brian Sullivan arrested him. Sullivan knew a lot about the case: the district attorney was using him as a witness against Martell-Lebron. The judge held Sullivan in contempt for violating Martell-Lebron's constitutional rights by detaining him in the midst of a trial. But then things got more complicated; the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts moved the proceeding against Sullivan to federal court, and argued that local judges and prosecutors have no jurisdiction over a federal agent carrying out official duties. U.S. Attorney Leah Foley also said interference in federal immigration enforcement would "not be tolerated." On Friday, state Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office filed in court that it would not dispute the U.S. attorney’s effort to have the case vacated. By Monday morning, a federal judge in Boston dismissed the contempt case against Sullivan. District Attorney Kevin Hayden — whose office was working with the ICE agent in the prosecution of Martell-Lebron — could still bring obstruction of justice charges. But a spokesperson for Hayden said the DA does not have to make a move. Meanwhile, some legal advocates want to know more about the relationship between ICE and the district attorney’s office. They say prosecutors knew ICE was planning to make an arrest, and failed to disclose that to the court or to defense attorneys. “We’re in uncharted territory here,” said Shira Diner, president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a law professor at Boston University. She’s not involved in the case, but was among a group of attorneys who attended the hearing that led to the contempt finding against Sullivan. “People are getting taken off the street in the middle of their trial and … we all need to think differently about how we're going to conduct ourselves in this new system.” Hayden has said his office’s policy is to neither “support nor interfere with ICE and the operations of their duties.” But Diner said Hayden should establish clear protocols on how to deal with immigration enforcement amid prosecutions. “Anyone who thinks this is a one-time incident is wrong,” Diner said. “The situation is going to come up again, and how the district attorney's office [deals with ICE] is really important.” Asked about the call to set new protocols, Hayden spokesperson James Borghesani said the district attorney's "responsibility" was to prosecute Martell-Burton. "We did so to the best of our ability, including multiple attempts to get him back after ICE seized him,” he said. Developments in the case against the ICE agent come as Attorney General Campbell is party to multiple civil lawsuits against the Trump administration over immigration policies. A spokesperson for Campbell did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the decision not to oppose the federal effort to have the contempt case dismissed. Defense attorney Murat Erkan, who represented Martell-Lebron, said he wanted to see the AG continue fighting the case. He said not doing so creates the impression that the U.S. attorney's "threats to take action against those who oppose ICE has had its intended effect."
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