This story originally appeared in The New Bedford Light, a nonprofit digital news outlet that covers the South Coast.

A Guatemalan immigrant with no Massachusetts criminal record was arrested Monday in New Bedford after federal agents shattered the glass on his vehicle as he and his wife waited inside the car for their lawyer to arrive.

Juan Francisco Méndez, 29, who was taken to an undisclosed location, has been in the United States for two years and was undocumented, but pursuing an adjustment of his immigration status, according to his attorney, Ondine Gálvez. Méndez’s wife, Marilú, a beneficiary of an asylum program, had petitioned for him so he could regularize his status. They are the parents of one child.

Gálvez said Méndez has no criminal record. A name and date of birth search in the Massachusetts judicial system showed that Méndez has no criminal record in the state, according to a clerk at the New Bedford District Court.

According to Marilú, the couple had just left their home when they noticed unfamiliar vehicles parked along their street. Despite this, they continued on their way until three cars blocked them in on Tallman Street. Armed men wearing green bulletproof vests ordered them to get out of the vehicle, she said.

In video shot by Marilú and shared with The Light, one of the agents demanded that they open the door. Méndez replied that he would comply once his lawyer arrived, who was already on her way to assist him.

“Roll down the window so we can talk,” another agent insisted, while Méndez’s wife asked if they had an arrest warrant for her or her husband.

The tense standoff took about 30 minutes. The couple were taken from their car after an agent smashed in the rear right window.

“They pulled us out violently. They treated us very harshly,” Méndez’s wife recalled through tears.

“They are acting with total impunity,” said Gálvez, referring to the federal agents — one of whom was wearing a vest labeled “FBI.”

“Imagine if a child had been in that car. I’m ashamed of what this country is becoming,” she added.

Representatives from several local organizations, including the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, Community Economic Development Center, and Mujeres Victoriosa, arrived on the scene to support Méndez and his wife.

The representatives tried to file a report with the local police. However, an officer from the New Bedford Police Department at first refused to take the complaint, stating that the federal agents were not accountable to municipal law enforcement, a Light reporter on the scene observed. However, a police officer later took the complaint and gave Méndez’s wife a piece of paper with an address and a serial number.

On Monday afternoon, Méndez contacted his wife from custody. “He called me to ask for the lawyer’s phone number. He didn’t tell me where he is,” said Méndez’s wife.

At least 15 people have been detained by federal agents in New Bedford since Jan. 20, the date the new administration took office.

Between March 18 and 23, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted what it called an “enhanced enforcement operation” across Massachusetts, resulting in the detention of 370 individuals the agency described as “criminal aliens.” The Light has confirmed that at least eight of those arrests took place in New Bedford, bringing the city’s total to 15 ICE-related detentions since the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Among those detained were José Antonio Garcia Garcia, 39, and Miguel Ordoñez Sorocop, 35. According to several teenagers who were in the home at the time, ICE agents entered the house without a warrant on March 21, using a battering ram and wearing military-style fatigues. The agents pointed their weapons at the children’s faces as they were eating breakfast before school.

Others detained in New Bedford include three Guatemalan workers from the Minit Man Car Wash on Purchase Street and one worker from Bob’s Tire on Brook Street. These arrests are part of a broader enforcement trend in the city that has raised concerns among local residents and community leaders.

Email Gerardo Beltrán Salinas at gerardo@newbedfordlight.org. Anastasia Lennon contributed reporting.