Around 200 people gathered on the steps of New Bedford city hall Saturday morning to protest a recent ICE raid on a South End home that resulted in the arrest of two Guatemalan men: José Antonio Garcia Garcia, 39, and Miguel Ordoñez Socop, 35.
According to the New Bedford Light, Garcia is currently being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Socop is being held at the Strafford County Department of Corrections in Dover, N.H.
Garcia and Socop were arrested by federal immigration agents at their home in New Bedford on March 21. Witnesses said agents, dressed in military fatigues, were armed and used a battering ram to enter the building. Three teenagers were present at the time of the raid.
At the Saturday rally, a community organizer who identified herself as Mariposa said one of the teenager’s family members told her the boy was handcuffed and had a gun pointed at him during the 15-minute operation. She also said that the agents – from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration – did not show a warrant. Mariposa says she recently lost her DACA status and took the news of the raid personally.
“I came to the United States when I was nine years old. And I think for me to see that things haven’t changed, and it doesn’t matter how much I have contributed to this country, or how many schools I’ve gone to, they still continue to treat us like criminals,” Mariposa said. “It absolutely broke my heart that they did this to a 16-year-old boy who is tiny and looks tiny.”
The rally was organized by several community groups, including Centro Communitario de Trabajodores (CCT), Coalition for Social Justice, Community Economic Development Center (CEDC), COSECHA New Bedford, New Bedford Coalition to Save Our Schools and Mujeres Victoriosas.
Mariposa said several of the immigrant assistance organizations present have been working on a volunteer group to verify and publicize potential ICE sightings in the region.
