Captured on video! In a startling video, US ICE officers smash a car window and wrongfully imprison an asylum seeker.

New discussions concerning the methods and management of immigration arrests by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been sparked by a video that shows ICE officers smashing a car window and dragging a guy out of his automobile.

Caught on camera

As his wife recorded the event, ICE officers in New Bedford, Massachusetts, arrested 29-year-old Juan Francisco-Mendez on Monday by shattering the glass of his car and dragging him out. The person the agents were allegedly looking for was Francisco-Mendez, a Guatemalan national awaiting final asylum documents.

Agents were looking for a man named Antonio, who used to live in the building where Francisco-Mendez resides, according to his lawyer, Ondine Galvez Sniffin. Agents intensified the situation in spite of obvious protestations and attempts to wait for legal counsel.

Case of mistaken identity?

As Sniffin put it, “They said they were looking for a certain individual, by a different name.” That is not my client, I informed them. That is not my customer; I am aware of his past.

Marilu Domingo Ortiz, Francisco-Mendez’s wife, who is protected under asylum, and their 9-year-old son watched in disbelief as agents broke the window of their car.

ICE defends actions

In a statement, as reported by CBS News, ICE said Francisco-Mendez “refused to comply with officers’ instructions and resisted apprehension.” The agency insisted agents used “the minimum amount of force necessary.”

Adrian Ventura, a community organizer who was present at the scene, called the officers’ actions “very violent,” saying that when they shattered the window, it was as if an explosion had occurred.

Francisco-Mendez had already been arrested before lawyer Sniffin showed up. He has not yet been charged and is being held at a facility in Dover, New Hampshire.

Sniffin remarked, “I have no answers for his wife.” “I can not tell her when he will be coming home,” she said.