A Massachusetts high school student was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while on his way to volleyball practice Saturday morning, sparking outrage among the community and public officials.
Marcelo Gomes, an 18-year-old junior at Milford High School was driving to volleyball practice with three other team members when unmarked cars pulled up behind them, CBS News reported. ICE officers quickly arrested Gomes, who is undocumented, and he remains in custody Monday.
Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, said agents were actually looking for the Gomes’ father and pulled over the car because it was registered in the father’s name.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I didn’t say he was dangerous, I said he was in this country illegally, and we’re not going to walk away from anybody,” Lyons told reporters at a press conference Monday. He said Gomes’ father hadn’t turned himself in yet.
Gomes’ attorney Miriam Conrad has requested his immediate release from an ICE detention center in Burlington. In a writ of habeas corpus filed with the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, she wrote that Gomes has “no criminal history anywhere in the world” and said he came to the United States from Brazil with a student visa in 2012.
“His student visa status has lapsed, but Petitioner is eligible for and intends to apply for asylum,” she wrote, according to WCVB. A federal judge has issued an emergency order Sunday blocking federal immigration authorities from transferring Gomes out of the state for at least 72 hours.
The teenager is the latest person to be swept up in the Trump administration’s deportation dragnet. Last week, the immigration authorities deported a two-year-old girl who is an American citizen with her Brazilian parents, leaving her stateless. In April, ICE arrested a Danish father of four at his citizenship interview over a paperwork error; he has spent more than a month in detention.
But the administration, frustrated by the pace of deportations, is pushing for more arrests. On Thursday, it ousted a top ICE official from the division responsible for arrests and removals, calling the move a “leadership realignment to support its increasing operational tempo.”
In Milford, community members were left questioning why President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown—supposedly aimed at the “worst of the worst”—would target a high school student.
“His parents are terrified, his classmates are terrified, his teammates are terrified, and students shouldn’t be terrified going to volleyball practice; this is not the United States of America that we signed up for,” Elizabeth Grady, a Milford parent, told Boston 25 News.
More than 1,000 community members joined a rally in protest of Gomes’ arrest on Sunday, including Milford High School seniors in cap and gown who had graduated earlier in the day day. Gomes, a member of the school band, was supposed to play the drums at the graduation ceremony.
“He’s been here for 13 years. This is all he knows. Milford and Massachusetts is all he knows,” Gomes’ cousin Ana Julia Araujo told CBS News.
Milford Police Chief Robert Tusino condemned ICE for conducting operations in the town without notifying local law enforcement, calling the move “shocking.”
“We want an open dialogue with the federal government about who’s getting detained, why they’re getting detained,” he told reporters. “We don’t want people just coming into town and being detained or arrested solely because they’re here illegally.”
Massachusetts’ Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said she was “disturbed and outraged” by Gomes’ arrest, and demanded that ICE provide “immediate information about why he was arrested, where he is and how his due process is being protected.”
“My heart goes out to the Milford community on what was supposed to be a celebratory graduation day. The Trump Administration continues to create fear in our communities, and it’s making us all less safe,” she continued in her statement.
Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs, told the Daily Beast, “ICE officers engaged in a targeted immigration enforcement operation of a known public safety threat and illegal alien, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira. Local authorities notified ICE that this illegal alien has a habit of reckless driving at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour through residential areas endangering Massachusetts residents.”
“Officers identified the target’s vehicle, and initiated a vehicle stop with the intention of apprehending Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira. Upon conducting the vehicle stop, officers arrested Marcelo Gomes-Da Silva, an illegally present, 18-year-old Brazilian alien and the son of the intended target. While ICE officers never intended to apprehend, Gomes-DaSilva, he was found to be in the United States illegally and subject to removal proceedings, so officers made the arrest. Gomes-DaSilva remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”
