An immigrant who was arrested in New Bedford and then held in New Hampshire for the past month has been released from custody on bail.
Juan Francisco Méndez’s case gained national attention when a video of the arrest circulated online. The video shows a federal agent smashing Méndez’s car window to arrest him.
Thirty-one days later, Méndez was released from Strafford County Corrections in New Hampshire.
Méndez’s lawyer, Ondine Gálvez Sniffin, told CAI on Thursday afternoon, “Méndez has left the facility at Strafford and is on his way to Burlington, [MA], which is where he will be processed out of ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] custody.”
Méndez left Strafford exactly one week after an immigration judge initially ordered his release, dismissing the case and citing the U.S. government’s failure to press any charges against Méndez, who does not have a criminal record. That hearing was on May 8.
Sniffin had requested a bail bond hearing for her client before the May 8 hearing, and one was scheduled for May 15. When the judge dismissed Méndez’s case and ordered his release, he told Sniffin he would keep the May 15 bond hearing in place, in case something happened and Méndez ended up not being released.
And that’s exactly what happened, Sniffin said. The government did not honor that release order due to discrepancies with Méndez’s “A number”—a type of identification number the U.S. government assigns to immigration cases.
Because of the A number issues, Sniffin was unsure how the May 15 bond hearing would go.
“They're not recognizing the May 15 hearing because it's under another A number,” she told CAI last week.
The day of the hearing came, and the judge set Méndez’s bail at $1,500. The bail was paid, and by the afternoon, Méndez had been released from Strafford and was on his way to Burlington.
Thursday evening, Méndez walked out of the ICE facility in Burlington, free to go—for now.
“He will still need to appear in court, but it will be at a future date,” Sniffin said. “I don't know when.”
After weeks of holding Méndez without filing any formal charges against him, the government officially charged Méndez on Tuesday. He is charged with being in the country without documentation.
Méndez is from Guatemala and lives in New Bedford with his wife and son, who both have asylum. When he was arrested, Méndez was already in the process of applying to become a derivative asylee. That’s a process where the U.S. government allows migrants to apply for asylum through a family member. His asylum case is still pending.
Méndez is one of at 24 migrants who have been arrested in New Bedford as part of federal immigration operations since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, according to the New Bedford Light.
