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Juan Francisco Méndez may soon reunite with his wife and 9-year-old son after a judge ruled federal officials failed to back up his arrest.
A judge has ordered the release of a Guatemalan man who was arrested in New Bedford last month when an immigration agent smashed in his car window.
Judge Donald Ostrom on Thursday ruled that 29-year-old Juan Francisco Méndez, who has no criminal record, must be released due to a failure to prosecute, according to a Boston Globe report.
The ruling came after Méndez’s attorney, Ondine Gálvez Sniffin, argued in a remote bond hearing that federal officials had not filed the appropriate charging paperwork, according to the paper.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested Méndez outside his New Bedford home on April 14 as he and his wife, Marilu Domingo Ortiz, were en route to a dentist appointment. Ortiz captured the dramatic arrest on video, which was widely circulated in the media and on social media.
In the video, Méndez is heard conversing with ICE officers in Spanish from inside his car. Within moments, one of the officers is seen smashing the vehicle’s back window with a sledgehammer before opening the back door and pulling Méndez out.
A government attorney reportedly remained quiet as Judge Ostrom made the ruling Thursday. Sniffin told the Globe it’s the first time she’s seen such a thing happen in her 27 years of practice.
“This was a month of injustice. Their silence is telling,” she said.
Questions swirled over why Méndez was arrested, as officers were reportedly asking for a man named “Antonio,” who lives on a separate floor of their building. Ortiz and the couple’s 9-year-old son were granted asylum in February 2024 after fleeing violence in Guatemala, according to the paper. Under federal immigration law, her husband is eligible for derivative asylee status.
Sniffin told the Globe that Méndez provided his fingerprints to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Since his arrest, Méndez has been held at the Strafford County Department of Corrections in Dover, N.H. Following Thursday’s ruling, it’s not clear when he will be released. But in a separate civil suit, a New Hampshire federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to give 72 hours notice before transferring him anywhere.
“We don’t have any problems with this country. It’s fine for [immigration officials] to do their job but not unjustly like they did with my husband,” Ortiz told the Globe.
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