ICE agents smash car window to detain Guatemalan asylum seeker

A family in Massachusetts is calling for answers after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents smashed the window of their car and detained a Guatemalan man who they say is seeking asylum.

Juan Francisco Mendez was on his way to a dental appointment with his wife and young son in New Bedford on Monday when several ICE agents surrounded their vehicle.

In a video recorded by his wife, Marilu Domingo Ortiz, an agent is seen using a hammer to shatter the rear passenger window before dragging both occupants from the car.

Ortiz and the couple’s nine-year-old son have already been granted asylum. Mendez was applying for derivative asylum, which allows family members of asylees to seek the same protection.

Their lawyer, Ondine Galvez-Sniffin, said ICE agents initially claimed they were looking for another individual named “Antonio.”

Despite being shown documents indicating Mendez’s asylum application, the agents proceeded to arrest him without presenting a warrant.

“When I arrived on the scene, my client's wife was sobbing and shaking,” Galvez-Sniffin told the Associated Press. “There was broken glass everywhere. I’ve been doing immigration work for 27 years and this was the first time I saw such violent, drastic measures.”

Mendez, who has no criminal record and has lived in the US for four years, is being held at a facility in Dover, New Hampshire. A federal judge has since ruled that ICE must provide 72 hours’ notice before moving him again. His hearing is scheduled for 7 May.

Ortiz said the experience traumatised their son, who has stopped eating since witnessing the arrest. “We came here to work hard and raise our family,” she said. “We don’t deserve this treatment.”

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell issued a statement expressing concern about the incident and ICE’s current practices. “The public deserves an explanation,” he wrote on X, adding that ICE has seemingly abandoned its earlier practice of informing local police before operations, increasing risks for everyone involved.

The arrest follows other controversial detentions in the region, including that of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk and Wilson Martell-Lebron, who was detained by ICE outside a courtroom last month. A judge later found the ICE agent in contempt for violating the man’s due process rights.

ICE has not responded to repeated requests for comment.