So, there’s this guy named Juan Francisco Méndez, a New Bedford man from Guatemala, who got detained by ICE last month. The whole thing was a big deal, but now he’s finally been released. The poor guy spent 30 days in Suffolk County Jail in New Hampshire before his attorney, Ondine Gálvez Sniffin, managed to get him out. It turns out that ICE didn’t file the right paperwork, so a judge ordered his release. But here’s the kicker – even though he’s out of jail, he’s still stuck wearing an ankle monitor. Talk about a rough deal.
The whole mess started when ICE agents smashed Méndez’s car window while looking for someone else. They dragged him and his wife out of the car and arrested him, even though he didn’t have a criminal record. Sniffin thinks it was all a big mistake and that ICE was just trying to flex their muscles. To make matters worse, they slapped an ankle monitor on him without any proof that the judge approved it. Now Sniffin is back in court trying to get that thing removed. It’s like one step forward, two steps back for poor Méndez.
Despite all the drama, Méndez actually has a shot at getting asylum thanks to his wife. She and their son were granted political asylum a while back, so he’s hoping to piggyback off of that. But the road to asylum is never easy, especially when ICE is breathing down your neck. The whole situation has left Méndez and his legal team scratching their heads. Will ICE ever own up to their mistakes? Not really sure why this matters, but it’s definitely a head-scratcher.
