Maria lives in New Bedford and is originally from Mexico. She’s been in the country for more than 20 years now and jokes that the Mexican food on the East Coast isn’t as good as what she’s used to back home. She followed her husband to the U.S. when he was looking for better work.
“I miss my home very much, all of my family. Because really most of my family is in Mexico,” she said in Spanish. “For the most part, I’m alone here, but this city is beautiful and full of people.”
We’re using Maria’s first name only because she’s in the country without legal status and is afraid of drawing attention from authorities.
In the two decades she’s been in the country without legal status, Maria says she’s never lived in fear before. For years, she’s worked as a volunteer helping other immigrants in New Bedford. But after President Trump’s first few months back in office, this time around Maria said she’s feeling powerless.
“You have to keep looking over your shoulder. It makes you feel like a criminal to be saying ‘oh, they’re following me, someone’s watching me,’” Maria said. Now that these things are a very real possibility, she says she needs to be more careful than ever.
Maria said things have gotten worse since news broke last week that federal agents had targeted the Minit Man car wash and detained three men from Guatemala who work there.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement will often publicize criminal charges against immigrants they arrest, but the agency has said nothing about the raid at the car wash. According to immigrant advocates, the detainees’ family members say the three men don’t have criminal records.
Maria said she’s afraid more immigrants in New Bedford could be targeted. In the last few weeks, she’s been hearing from immigrant shop owners who say they’re seeing fewer people come in due to general anxiety over possible ICE raids.
“They don’t want to go outside to do things they would normally do all the time,” Maria said. “The fear caused by these rumors is affecting people’s daily lives. But they aren’t even rumors anymore, because a raid really did happen at the car wash. Things are starting to get real.”
Corinn Williams is executive director of the Community Economic Development Center in New Bedford. It’s a group that works closely with the city’s immigrant community. She echoes Maria’s concerns.
“I think everybody was just shocked that this could happen right out of the blue,” Williams said.
Williams said she arrived at the Minit Man car wash last week right after federal agents had left, and spoke with the car wash owner, other workers and witnesses. She said they were horrified to see the three men taken away in chains and shackles.
A witness who also lacks legal status told Williams that ICE agents arrived in unmarked vehicles, dressed in plain clothes. The witness told Williams the agents didn’t identify themselves throughout most of the 30-minute operation until ultimately showing their badges.
“It was just sort of a random sweep at this place of employment,” Williams said.
She says her organization and other immigrant assistance groups have been working with the families of the three detainees to connect them to legal resources, and they’re hoping to find some way to secure their release.
Official details about the raid and why it occurred have been hard to come by. And people in New Bedford say that’s added to the fear and uncertainty among immigrants living in the city. When we reached out, ICE said it does not comment on any ongoing, upcoming or planned operations. City officials said they were given no advance notice and first learned about the raid through word of mouth. The owner of the car wash declined to comment.
Adrian Ventura is director of the Centro Communitario de Trabajadores, a group that assists immigrant workers. Since the raid, his organization has been running a GoFundMe campaign to collect emergency funds for the detainees’ families. He said the raid has left him with a lot of questions.
“This is all unusual,” Ventura said in Spanish. “I see this as a violation of human rights, as a violation of the government’s own laws.”
The car wash raid has also stirred up unpleasant memories for many people in New Bedford. The city has attracted immigrants for hundreds of years, and today one out of every five residents is foreign-born. And some people here still recall the infamous Michael Bianco factory raid 16 years ago, when federal agents detained around 360 workers who didn’t have legal status. The people I spoke with say they hope they won’t have to see that happen again.
For more information about what to do if you encounter or are detained by federal agents, go to riaclu.org/know-your-rights.
Do you have questions or concerns about immigration enforcement in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts? Reach out to The Public’s Radio community engagement reporter Paul C. Kelly Campos at pkelly@thepublicsradio.org. We will not publish any personal information you share without your permission, but your perspective will help inform our reporting.
