ICE Detained A High Schooler Because They Were Looking For His Father, And People Are Absolutely Outraged
Related:
Late last month, an 18-year-old Massachusetts high schooler named Marcelo Gomes da Silva became one of the thousands of people nationwide who have been taken into ICE custody. Gomes da Silva was arrested on his way to volleyball practice by agents who were looking for his father, according to CBS News. His lawyer says he entered the country legally from his home country of Brazil, but holds a long-expired student visa.
"I was 7 years old. I don't know nothing about that stuff. I don't understand how it works," Gomes da Silva said of renewing his visa.
Outside the detention facility after his release on bond from an immigration court judge, Gomes da Silva spoke to the media about the conditions he and other detainees experienced inside. He had been held in ICE's Boston field office in Burlington, Massachusetts; some lawmakers say the facility is being used improperly and that detainees are subjected to "abysmal" conditions there.
"The facility is only meant to hold people for a short period of time before they are moved to actual detention centers. But with the Trump administration reportedly setting arrest quotas for ICE agents to meet, field offices not meant to be detention centers are apparently becoming overwhelmed with detainees," Boston.com reported.
"That place — it's not good. It's not good," the teen says in a clip of his interview posted by NBC10 Boston.
"Ever since I got here, they had me in handcuffs. They put me downstairs, and I was in a room with a bunch of 35-year-old men," he says, adding that they put around 40 men in a small room.
NBC10 Boston / Via instagram.com
Related:
"We would barely get any attention from the people there. It'd be really hard. I haven't showered in six days, I haven't done anything," Gomes da Silva says. He told reporters that the only thing he could do was "thank God every day" and talk to other detainees about the Bible.
"At the end of the day, this place isn't— it's not a good spot to be. Nobody should be in here," he goes on. "Most people down there are all workers. They got caught going to work. And these people have— these people have families, man, like they have kids to go home to," he says, getting choked up.
NBC10 Boston / Via instagram.com
You can watch NBC's full clip of Gomes da Silva's interview here.
Related:
In another video prior to his release, a spokesperson for Gomes da Silva's family told media that there were "no beds" and "no food," and that he was "eating a lot of crackers."
CBS News reported that the teen served as a translator for other people in the detention center and "cried when he informed them that their paperwork said they were being deported." The outlet also said that he "slept on a concrete floor with a metallic blanket and had to use the bathroom in front of 40 other men."
The top comment read that "anyone can tell he's a good kid" and told Gomes da Silva that "God is using your life" in Portuguese.
"I agree with him: nobody should be in there," one person commented.
"No human should be treated like this," another wrote.
Related:
One person recapped the teenager's case, wondering why his detention was necessary. "He's a student, he's not a threat," they wrote. "But this is how our system treats young people who've grown up here, as if they're disposable."
This person called Gomes da Silva's arrest and detention "A trauma he did not deserve," adding that "This is Trump's America."
And finally, someone wrote, "i cant wrap my mind around people looking at another living and breathing human being and calling them 'illegal' and an 'alien' when most of them have never done anything wrong to you or the community."
What do you think? Discuss in the comments.
Also in In the News:
Also in In the News:
Also in In the News:
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Fed Found Over 22,000 Mortgages Like Those Pulte Is Flagging
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump and his allies are demanding Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook resign over alleged owner-occupancy fraud — a practice the central bank itself has found to be 'broad-based' across the US. Philadelphia Fed researchers in a 2023 report assessed the number of 'fraudulent investors' in the mortgage market, which they defined as those who had more than one owner-occupied home purchase loan within four quarters after the first one was originated. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has said that Cook took a mortgage on a property in Ann Arbor, Michigan, stipulating that it would be her primary residence, and then two weeks later declared the same for another mortgage on a Georgia property. Why New York City Has a Fleet of New EVs From a Dead Carmaker Trump Takes Second Swing at Cutting Housing Assistance for Immigrants Chicago Schools Seeks $1 Billion of Short-Term Debt as Cash Gone A London Apartment Tower With Echoes of Victorian Rail and Ancient Rome The paper's data set consists of 584,499 loans made from 2005 to 2017. Of those, 22,431 were considered fraudulent. The share of those claiming occupancy for better mortgage terms peaked ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, though remained steady for much of the ensuing decade at about 2% to 3%. The findings are based on a subsample of data, meaning the number of mortgages fitting the central bank's criteria could be higher. The researchers also caution that there are likely cases of accidental occupancy fraud, such as when borrowers were unable to sell their original home because of a worse-than-expected real estate market. Scrutinizing the mortgages of Cook, who was nominated to the Fed by former President Joe Biden, appears to be the latest way in which Trump and his allies are using novel methods to pressure the central bank to lower interest rates. The president said Wednesday that Cook 'must resign now,' while Pulte claimed his accusations give him 'cause to fire' her. If she were forced out, it would create another opening for Trump to appoint someone who would likely push for more aggressive rate cuts. Pulte said 'anybody can go look at these public documents' from Cook in a CNBC interview Wednesday. He cited four criminal statutes for Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe for potential charges. No charges have been filed and it's not clear whether she will investigate. Ronel Elul, a senior economic adviser and economist at the Philadelphia Fed who co-authored the 2023 report, didn't elaborate beyond what was in the paper when reached for comment. The Fed declined to comment. Cook, in a statement Wednesday, said she has 'no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet.' She added that she is 'gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.' David Joffe, a federal criminal defense attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said in his experience, occupancy cases are rare. Still, 'like anything else, if you look at it under a microscope you're bound to find something that's wrong,' he said in an interview. Mortgage fraud cases tend to relate to overstating assets and income rather than misstating a primary residence, said Stephen Cazares, a former federal prosecutor who's now a defense lawyer at Foundation Law Group. Those based solely on a home being falsely identified as a primary residence are 'unusual' but 'not unheard of,' he said. They're rare because the theoretical loss to a financial institution is lower in cases based on primary residence, where the lender 'basically got cheated out of a higher interest rate' rather than the value of the home, Cazares said. The Philadelphia Fed report found that about a third of all property investors misrepresent their status as owner-occupants. It found that doing so allowed them to obtain lower interest rates and higher loan-to-value ratios. 'This type of fraud is difficult to detect until long after the mortgage has been originated,' the researchers said in their paper. Cook's mortgages in question were from 2021. Trump's administration has also made mortgage fraud allegations against California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both are Democrats and political foes of Trump. --With assistance from Erik Larson. (Updates with Cook statement starting in ninth paragraph.) Foreigners Are Buying US Homes Again While Americans Get Sidelined What Declining Cardboard Box Sales Tell Us About the US Economy Women's Earnings Never Really Recover After They Have Children Survived Bankruptcy. Next Up: Cultural Relevance? Americans Are Getting Priced Out of Homeownership at Record Rates ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
New York Post
3 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump's DC takeover is just Step 1 — dysfunctional capital needs a bigger fix
Last week President Donald Trump declared war on crime in Washington, DC, when he sent in the National Guard and federalized the district's police force for the 30-day period allowable under the DC Home Rule Act. Trump's motives were good: He's right that it's shameful our national capital has become one of our most dangerous cities. He's also right that DC's crime epidemic hurts America's competitiveness and prestige. But the president's month-long law enforcement takeover won't fix that problem — because the problem is not, at its core, bad law enforcement. It's the fact that DC's government has for decades now shown itself incapable of even the most basic level of public administration. Blame it, too, on Congress, which transferred control over the district to the city's own elected government in the Home Rule Act of 1973 — but has refused to admit its mistake and reverse course. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives remain aloof from the problems they created, even as federal staffers, visitors and on occasion their own members are routinely harassed and attacked by criminals on the streets and in their homes. But the US Constitution stipulates that DC is a national public resource, not a self-governing city like any other. Under the Constitution, it is Congress's responsibility to competently administrate it — and Congress has abdicated that responsibility. When the 30-day takeover period is up (assuming Congress does not renew his privileges), Trump will turn the keys back over to a capital city government that can't staff a police force, can't keep young violent offenders off the streets and can't run a functioning crime lab. District officials can't claim to have reduced crime without cooking the books, and can't protect visiting diplomats from being shot And they're not just failing at law enforcement: DC can't keep its public schools out of the basement of national performance rankings, and can't prevent huge homeless encampments from forming while thousands of district-owned public housing units go unoccupied. The only possible solution to such a crisis of mismanagement is to overturn the law that gave home rule to DC and start over from scratch. And if President Trump is serious about tackling the district's dysfunction, he should do just that. First, the president should build up some goodwill by ending his police federalization and troop occupation, preferably earlier than planned. No need to make excuses; he can simply explain that he's come to realize DC's dysfunction runs far deeper than anything a few extra officers on the streets can solve. Then he and Republican leadership should begin meeting with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to generate support for Home Rule repeal. While Trump seems to think the entire district is dead set against him, this is incorrect: Many residents, while no fans of the president, are fed up with not being able to safely walk their dogs at night. Longtime Democratic members of Congress have personally experienced the city's dangers for many years, and they all know the ordeal of their colleague Angie Craig (D-Minn.), who was assaulted in her apartment building's elevator just two years ago. If Trump were to approach this issue firmly but collaboratively, he would find the water warmer than he thinks. Legally, the argument is not a hard sell. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says that Congress shall have 'exclusive legislation in all Cases whatsoever' over the federal district. Congress has given a 50-year trial to the notion of delegating its power to the people of DC, and that trial has unequivocally failed to produce a district that serves the interests of the federal government, the American people, or the residents themselves. Therefore, we should return to rule by Congress, as the Constitution mandates. Doing so would require a simple act of Congress, passed by both parties, that overturns the 1973 law and dismisses DC's elected representatives. A third section of the new law should establish a congressional committee to appoint exemplary city managers from cities around United States to reconstitute a competent DC government. In many American cities, like Madison, Wis., Phoenix, Ariz., and Wichita, Kan., elected officials appoint professional administrators to oversee day-to-day municipal operations. Washington, DC, should do the same — with Congress taking ultimate responsibility. Some on the left will bemoan the reversal of Home Rule as yet another federal assault on our democracy. But the District of Columbia was never intended by the Founders to be a self-governing state. It was intended to serve the interests of the country as a whole, by providing a safe and orderly place for public administration. Returning DC's governing prerogative to the people of America, not the district itself, will take us one step closer to being the republic the Founders envisioned. John Masko is a journalist specializing in business and international politics.
CBS News
4 minutes ago
- CBS News
Trump administration for now can end deportation protections for thousands from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua, court says
A federal appeals court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to end temporary deportation protections for more than 60,000 people from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal — at least for now. A lower court last month blocked the Department of Homeland Security from ending Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for the three countries until at least mid-November to give the court more time to weigh the issue. The judge sided with plaintiffs who argued the Trump administration's plan to wind down TPS was "motivated by racial animus." But on Wednesday, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit put that ruling on hold pending appeal. The order — which was issued by a panel of three judges nominated under the Clinton, Bush and first Trump administrations — did not offer a rationale for the decision. Tens of thousands of migrants from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal rely on TPS, a program that grants temporary reprieve from deportation and work permits to people whose home countries are deemed unsafe due to war or natural disaster. If they don't have any other means to stay in the U.S. legally — like a green card or an asylum application — those who lose their TPS are no longer eligible to work in the country lawfully and are at risk of deportation. Prior to last month's ruling, the Trump administration sought to end TPS for Nepal on Aug. 5, and for Nicaragua and Honduras in early September. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California — one of the organizations that sued the administration over the TPS decision — called Wednesday's ruling "devastating." "I am heartbroken by the court's decision," Sandhya Lama, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement released by the ACLU. "I've lived in the U.S. for years, and my kids are U.S. citizens and have never even been to Nepal. This ruling leaves us and thousands of other TPS families in fear and uncertainty." CBS News has reached out to DHS for comment. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has sought to wind down TPS for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Venezuela and other countries, arguing their protections have been in place for too long or that conditions in those nations have improved enough to allow their nationals to return. The Trump administration, for example, has noted that the TPS programs for Honduras and Nicaragua were first created in 1999, after Hurricane Mitch caused catastrophic floods and killed thousands in Central America. The TPS program for Nepal was announced in 2015, after an earthquake hit the small Asian country. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has said all three countries have recovered from those environmental disasters. But San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson said last month the TPS holders who sued Noem were likely to succeed in arguing that her decisions were "preordained" actions that did not fully consider lingering conditions in Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua. The judge also referenced a comment made by President Trump during the 2024 campaign in which he said migrants entering the U.S. illegally were "poisoning the blood of our country."
