CHELMSFORD — A New Bedford man whose April detention during an immigration raid made international headlines, with video of federal agents smashing in his car window, is set to be released after an immigration judge found the Department of Homeland Security did not file charges in the case.
Judge Donald Ostrom declared a failure to prosecute Juan Francisco Méndez Thursday morning after a motion by Ondine Gálvez Sniffin, Méndez’s attorney. Sniffin had cited the lack of a Notice to Appear since Méndez’s dramatic arrest by agents on April 14 — an incident first reported by The Light. The government notice, also called an I-862 form, essentially serves as a formal charging document in immigration cases.
DHS Attorney Matthew Burns remained quiet as Judge Ostrom announced his ruling.
“The case is closed,” said Sniffin during a Spanish-language press conference after the ruling. “Their silence is a recognition of the fact that they violated my client’s rights.”
She said Méndez should be transported from Strafford County Corrections in Dover, New Hampshire, where he is currently being held, to Burlington, Massachusetts, for release later in the day. She added that the ruling should have no effect on his asylum case, which he is filing through his wife, Marilú Domingo Ortiz.
Sniffin, a practicing immigration attorney for 27 years, said she has never seen a judge declare a failure to prosecute at any other point in her career.
“This is a first for me,” she said. “And I think they are going to have to keep doing this because they keep making mistakes.”
Sniffin sought Méndez’s release Thursday, but encountered a delay. She said that when she contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Burlington office, it had him listed under a different alien registration number than the one she and the Executive Office for Immigration Review had for him.
She also said ICE refused to recognize her as Méndez’s attorney because she had not digitally uploaded a G-28 form saying so, though she said Méndez has such a form on his person.
“That was all we needed before,” she said. “Now I need to go into this system, create a profile, and wait a day to get it approved. It’s ridiculous.”
She added she thought Méndez and his family would be within their rights to sue the federal government for violating Méndez’s constitutional rights.
Ortiz declined to comment. Representatives for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Agents first detained Méndez on April 14, after a half-hour standoff when he and Ortiz refused to open their car doors or speak with them without an attorney present. Ortiz said she and Méndez flashed red “Know your rights” cards obtained through the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores through their windows to the agents.
Ortiz said the agents were initially looking for a man named Antonio, who used to live at their North End address, but took in Méndez after the couple left their home that morning. The standoff came to an end in a dramatic fashion, in a scene Ortiz caught on video: one agent used an axe to smash the car window and seize Méndez.
“They pulled us out violently,” Ortiz told The Light shortly after the incident took place. “They treated us very harshly.”
The ruling in Méndez’s case came two days after another arrest in New Bedford. Federal agents detained Juan Ramón Alegría Rodas outside his wife’s North End home Monday in what his wife said was a case of mistaken identity. She said Rodas told her in a phone call from detention at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility that agents planned to charge him with illegal re-entry, despite his not having left the U.S. since the 1990s. She said the agents thought Rodas was José Chaclan Cienfuentes, an old friend of his with whom he lived years ago in Framingham. Cienfuentes was deported in 2009.
The Méndez decision also came one day after Adrian Ventura, director of the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, said ICE detained four more men in an operation throughout New Bedford, bringing the total number of New Bedford residents in ICE detention to 22.
Sniffin said she has already filed a habeas petition for one of the four men detained Wednesday in an effort to make sure ICE does not move him without notifying the courts or herself.
Sniffin said Méndez’s experience is a sign of a troubling trend of eroding civil rights under the Trump administration, for immigrants regardless of status.
“Look at that man they sent to El Salvador,” she said, referring to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has garnered international attention after he was deported to the CECOT super prison in El Salvador due to an administrative error in April. The Trump administration has yet to make efforts to return him to the U.S. despite a U.S. Supreme Court order. “At least for Juan, it was only a month in detention but without charges.”
“This has been a month of injustice,” she concluded.
Gerardo Beltrán Salinas and Eleonora Bianchi contributed to this report.
Kevin G. Andrade can be reached at [email protected].
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, 2025, to update Méndez’s possible release date and other new details.