PROVIDENCE – The union for city police is disputing a civilian oversight panel’s judgment that the police department broke the law while assisting a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in July.
“It is simply trash,” the Providence Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 said of the panel's report in an Aug. 28 statement. “[The Providence External Review Authority] tried to fit a square peg in a round hole by desperately trying to conclude that the Providence police officers present at this incident somehow violated” a city ordinance.
The incident in question occurred on July 13, when police were called to a multivehicle car accident involving ICE officials who were pursuing a man through the city, according to a memo sent to Mayor Brett P. Smiley’s office and the City Council.
ICE agents arrested Ivan Rene Mendoza-Meza, a Honduran national, after he fled into a home on Alverson Avenue following the crash. Providence police helped evacuate the landlord, the landlord’s partner, and two children before Mendoza-Meza surrendered.
Mendoza-Meza, a documented MS-13 member, had illegally reentered the U.S. multiple times and was out on bond for a 2023 conviction tied to fentanyl and cocaine distribution, according to ICE. However, PERA’s memo reported that Mendoza-Meza was wanted only on a civil detainer at the time of his July arrest, not a criminal warrant.
PERA, which investigates police misconduct but not ethics violations by city officials, determined that Providence police officers set up perimeters, moved crowds, gathered intelligence and directed ICE agents tactically, in violation of city ordinances and police general orders. Body camera rules were also broken, according to the memo.
Supervisors on scene said they did not know how to lawfully handle ICE operations and felt they could not leave until the situation was resolved.
PERA recommended disciplining the officers who violated body camera rules and called on the Providence Police Department to issue clear operational guidelines within 10 days on how officers should handle requests from ICE related to immigration enforcement.
The union, however, said the police did nothing wrong in “peacefully resolving a hostile situation involving a potentially violent subject.”
PERA on Tuesday issued a response noting that their initial report seemed to have “struck a nerve. As the adage says, the truth hurts.”
The panel said the union is attempting to “deliberately mislead the public with facts not in the record.”
Smiley spokesperson Anthony Vega on Aug. 22 said the police department was developing training guidelines “to reinforce consistent practices regarding interactions with federal agencies, particularly U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
