Latest news with #GomesDaSilva
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE detains Massachusetts student Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, sparking high school walkouts
Federal immigration agents detained a Massachusetts high school student on his way to volleyball practice, mistaking him when he drove his father's car. The May 31 arrest of Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, 18, has triggered protests and walkouts at Milford High School, where he is an 11th-grade student, according to the Milford Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Network. The school had its graduation a day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Gomes Da Silva while he was heading with teammates to practice. The Brazilian teen was set to perform drums in the school's band at the June 1 graduation ceremony. Milford High School Principal Joshua Otlin said at the graduation ceremony that the community couldn't pretend all was well. 'There is fear and anxiety, where there should be hope and confidence,' he said on the school's turf field. 'There is wrenching despair and righteous anger, where there should be gratitude and joy.' Instead, graduation speakers admitted to making last-minute adjustments to address the arrest of their classmate. Class President Luke Benjamin Donis, a champion wrestler, urged his fellow graduates to 'give whatever time they can' to join a large rally at Milford Town Hall after the high school ceremony. Gomes Da Silva arrived in the United States legally in 2012 on a visitor's visa that later turned into a student visa, his lawyers said. It isn't clear when that visa expired. He has no criminal history. He was active in his high school marching band and church band, along with excelling in school and was involved in extracurricular and faith-based activities, his immigration lawyer Robin Nice said in a statement. Gomes Da Silva does not pose a danger to the community and isn't a flight risk, Nice said. He has an immigration court hearing scheduled for the afternoon of June 5, where Nice said they would request his release on bond. His lawyers planned to pursue an asylum claim for him in the United States. On June 1, federal Judge Richard Stearns of Massachusetts issued an emergency order banning ICE from transferring Gomes Da Silva out of the state for at least 72 hours. On June 2, Milford High students staged a walkout protesting Gomes' detention. Students left their campus wearing Brazilian flags, holding signs and a white banner reading 'Free Marcelo.' Others donned white shirts inscribed with his name. ICE has said its agents were targeting Gomes Da Silva's father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, who is in the country illegally from Brazil. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said agents targeted Gomes-Pereira with information from local enforcement due to reckless driving, speeding that topped 100 mph. But when they stopped Gomes-Pereira's car, they arrested Gomes Da Silva. On June 2, Patricia Hyde, acting field director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations' in Boston, said they detained him because local agencies didn't cooperate with ICE. 'When we go into the community and find others who are unlawfully here, we're going to arrest them,' Hyde said. 'He's 18 years old and he's illegally in this country. We had to go to Milford looking for someone else and if we come across someone else who is here illegally, we're going to arrest them.' Officials said Gomes Da Silva was detained as officials announced the results of 'Operation Patriot,' which arrested 1,500 people across Massachusetts suspected of being in the country illegally. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Lyons said Gomes Da Silva's father hasn't turned himself in, although he knows he's the target of the operation. In a video posted to social media, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, said of the situation, 'This isn't about public safety. This is about cruelty and fear engendered by the Trump administration.' Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said the teenager's arrest left her 'outraged.' 'Yet again, local officials and law enforcement have been left in the dark with no heads-up and no answers to their questions,' she said in a statement. 'I'm demanding that ICE provide immediate information about why he was arrested, where he is and how his due process is being protected.' Nick Molinari, president of the Milford Teachers Association, said in a statement that ICE agents targeted a student in a 'deliberate act of cruelty, traumatizing his family, friends and peers.' 'This is immoral, unnecessary and should be universally condemned,' he said. 'We will not stand by while the rights and humanity of our students are violated.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ICE detains Massachusetts student, sparking high school walkouts
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Milford High student released from ICE detention: ‘Nobody should be in here' (video)
A Milford student athlete arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend said the first thing he wanted to do when he got home after his release Thursday was hug his dog. Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, who was arrested while driving to volleyball practice on Saturday, was released from an ICE facility in Burlington after a judge ordered he be granted bond. He said during the six days he had spent in custody, he had faced poor conditions, had no access to showers and sometimes had been given only crackers for a meal. 'It's not a good spot to be. Nobody should be in here,' Gomes Da Silva said, speaking to reporters outside of the Burlington facility after his release Thursday afternoon. The 18-year-old said he had picked up a teammate on the way to volleyball practice Saturday when another car pulled up behind him. At first, he thought it was just a normal car, until the ICE agent turned on their lights and got out. In custody, Gomes Da Silva said adult men surrounded him and he was uncomfortable using the bathroom in front of others. He slept on concrete floors using a mylar blanket. Because he speaks English, Portuguese and Spanish, Gomes Da Silva said he translated for many of the other men in the detention facility, who often asked him to read documents that they had been asked to sign before they did so. 'A lot of those papers, I would have to look back at them and be like, 'You're being deported. They're taking you out of the country,'' he said. 'And I would have to watch people cry.' Gomes Da Silva said that he had come to the United States at 6 years old, and didn't know until his arrest that he was not a legal resident. Now, he worries about his father, who he said had taught him to always put others before himself. ICE agents were looking for Gomes Da Silva's father on Saturday. Gomes Da Silva was driving his father's car when he was stopped and arrested. 'He's 18 years old. He's unlawfully in this country, and we had to go to Milford to look for someone else, and we came across him, and he was arrested,' acting ICE Boston Office Director Patricia Hyde said during a Monday press conference at the John J. Moakley Courthouse in Boston. Many of the people Gomes Da Silva met in the Burlington facility had families and children, he said, adding he wanted to be able to help them and others in the same position. 'I told every single inmate down there, when I'm out, if I'm the only one that leaves that place, I've lost,' Gomes Da Silva said. 'I want to do whatever I can to get them as much help as possible.' U.S. Representative Seth Moulton, D-6th Massachusetts District, said that Gomes Da Silva had 'done more to demonstrate and uphold American values' in the few minutes that he spoke to reporters than the entirety of President Donald Trump's administration. U.S. Representative Jake Auchincloss, D-4th Massachusetts District, agreed and criticized the federal government's widespread arrests of undocumented immigrants who have no criminal histories. 'This is about dignity and freedom and due process. This administration is not making Americans safer and is not keeping the promises that Trump made on the campaign trail,' Auchincloss said. 'What he is doing is upending law and order. He's making communities feel less safe, and he's not upholding the core American promises.' After speaking to reporters with Gomes Da Silva, Moulton and Auchincloss went inside the ICE facility to see the conditions for themselves. The two U.S. Marine Corps veterans said it was worse than anything either had personally seen during their military service. They saw some of the cells in the facility, each of which had about half a dozen people and no windows, Moulton said. 'When we were going on hikes in the Marine Corps, and you'd have a thin mat to sleep on at night ... that's more than they have here,' he said. 'So for anyone like Marcelo, who's actually expected to stay here, to sleep here with no beds, not what anyone else would call a blanket, sparse food, no windows. It's obviously completely inappropriate, I would say inhumane, for long-term detention.' The Burlington facility is not typically used as a detention center, they explained, but for processing people who have been arrested, so most are only there for less than 24 hours. However, Gomes Da Silva was kept there longer after a judge issued an order to stop him from being moved out of state. Auchincloss said there were approximately 45 people, both men and women, in the facility during his visit on Thursday, though he added that Gomes Da Silva told him more people had been moved out of the building that morning. In a statement, Gov. Maura Healey said she was 'relieved' that Gomes Da Silva was returning home. 'This has been such a traumatic time for this community, and I hope that they find some solace in knowing that the rule of law and due process still prevail,' she said. 'Marcelo never should have been arrested or detained, and it certainly did not make us safer. 'It's not okay that students across the state are fearful of going to school or sports practice, and that parents have to question whether their children will come home at the end of the day,' she continued. 'In Massachusetts, we are going to keep speaking out for what's right and supporting one another in our communities.' Members of the community have staged a number of protests against Gomes Da Silva's detention, including after the Milford High School graduation, the day after his arrest. He said Thursday that he was grateful for the support. 'It showed me that a lot of people understand that it's not as easy as just taking someone, putting them in the detention center and sending them off to their country. There's more than that,' he said. 'There's family, there's love, there's community.' However, Auchincloss pointed out that not everyone in ICE detention has that support. 'We just don't know how many other kids like Marcelo might be wrapped up in the system and just don't have a community rising up to protest against what's happening,' he said. 'I think there are a lot of people who are just being forgotten.' 'He's going to be set free' — supporters of Milford teen arrested by ICE cheer release Milford High School student detained by ICE now in solitary confinement, lawyers say Mayor Wu defends calling ICE 'secret police' after Mass. US attorney's criticism Worcester city councilor faces criminal charges in connection with ICE arrest Judge denies ICE transfer of Milford student out of Mass., meeting with lawyer granted Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Judge orders Milford teen arrested by ICE to be released on bond
Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, the 18-year-old Milford student arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Saturday, has been granted bond by an immigration Judge on Thursday. Immigration Judge Jenny Beverly set a $2,000 bond Thursday afternoon. Robin Nice, one of Gomes Da Silva's lawyers, told reporters that the hope is that he is released as early as Thursday afternoon. Gomes Da Silva appeared virtually before a judge at the Chelmsford Immigration Court during a hearing set to decide whether he would be released on bond or remain detained. He is currently detained in Plymouth, something Nice said she was not aware of before the hearing. Gomes Da Silva had previously been detained at ICE's field office in Burlington, Massachusetts. 'That's what we've been told just now,' Nice said in front of reporters. 'I don't know if they moved him to Plymouth because they didn't have a way to put a laptop in front of him. I don't know.' The attorney said that Gomes Da Silva will be moved back to Burlington before he is released — though Nice did not say when he will return. Nice said her next steps will be to help her client obtain permanent status in the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials argued Wednesday to transfer Gomes Da Silva out of state to Rhode Island, but a judge sided with Gomes Da Silva's lawyer and denied the request that same day. Gomes Da Silva was arrested on May 31 while driving in a car with his volleyball teammates. He was stopped and detained by ICE agents looking for his father, João Paulo Gomes-Pereira. ICE had 'intelligence' on Gomes Da Silva's father 'from a local law enforcement agency,' according to Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director. Federal officials on Monday defended the teenager's arrest, despite saying he was not the target of their operation. They claimed he was 'unlawfully' in the United States. 'We were looking for his father — obviously, he's the father of the year, because he brought his son up here illegally as well,' Lyons told reporters in Boston on Monday. Nice, said that her client lawfully entered the United States. She told the judge Thursday that Gomes Da Silva came to the country on a visitor visa that became a student visa, which has since lapsed. Miriam Conrad, another of Gomes Da Silva's attorneys, told MassLive that her client was originally held in a holding cell with 25 to 30 other detainees before he was moved to solitary confinement. She called the conditions at the office 'horrendous,' saying her client had to sleep on a concrete floor and that the food offerings were meager and verged 'on the point of inedible' — so much so that a highlight for Gomes Da Silva was when he received a Snickers bar. Residents in Milford protested the arrest of Gomes Da Silva on June 1. Some Milford High School students held a walkout in support of their classmate on June 2. A hidden waterfall in Worcester is flowing for the first time in four years Milford High School student detained by ICE now in solitary confinement, lawyers say 'I did the humane thing': Worcester city councilor stands by actions at ICE arrest Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mass. high school student detained by ICE now in solitary confinement, lawyers say
Editors note: This story has been updated to correct information about Milford High's volleyball game. A Milford High School student who has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since last weekend was recently moved from a field office holding cell into solitary confinement, his lawyers told MassLive Wednesday night. Attorney Miriam Conrad said in an interview that when she asked one of the guards at ICE's Burlington, Massachusetts, field office why her client — 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva — was no longer being held in a cell along with 25 to 30 other detainees, he said that the guards thought 'he'd be more comfortable' in a separate holding space. Conrad expressed skepticism about the guard's assessment, saying that her client 'needs people to talk to.' But she and another member of the teen's legal team — Attorney Robin Nice — also described the holding cell he was previously being kept in as lacking privacy and a comfortable place to sleep. Read more: 'I need to hug my son': Milford student's family sends ICE video pleading for release Gomes Da Silva, a Brazilian citizen who migrated to the U.S. when he was a young boy, has not been accused of a crime beyond being in the country illegally. ICE agents intended to target teen's father —João Paulo Gomes-Pereira — when they pulled over Gomes-Pereira's car on May 31, but instead arrested Gomes Da Silva after discovering that he was using the car to drive his volleyball teammates around, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said Monday. 'This is just absolutely senseless, heartless and heartbreaking.' Conrad said Wednesday. 'It serves no purpose to take a kid like this off the street who has not ever committed a crime in his is loved by his community, by his school, by his church and put him into these horrendous, inhumane conditions and try to take him out of the country.' Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday night. Prior to being moved to solitary confinement, Gomes Da Silva was being kept in a holding cell with a single toilet that provided no privacy for the dozens of people being held there, his lawyers said. Detainees were also provided nothing to sleep on aside from the cell's concrete floor, and food offerings at the field office have been so 'meager and verging on the point of inedible' that the opportunity to eat a Snickers bar became 'a high point' for the teen amidst his ongoing detainment, Conrad said. Gomes Da Silva told his lawyers that some guards at the field office have been nice, while others have been less friendly. The teen recounted one incident during which a guard pretended to open the door to the holding cell as if he was about to free the detainees, only to quickly close it while saying 'sike,' prompting laughs from the other guards, Conrad said. Read more: Judge denies ICE transfer of Milford student out of Mass., meeting with lawyer granted 'If he is lucky,' Gomes Da Silva is allowed one two-minute phone call with his family a day, his lawyers said. During their conversation with him Wednesday night, he said he misses his family. Earlier that day, Gomes Da Silva's family released a video pleading with ICE to set their loved one free. 'I need my son inside my home. I need to hug my son — please,' his father said in the video. Gomes Da Silva is set to appear in Chelmsford Immigration Court on Thursday at 1 p.m. His lawyers hope the judge will allow him to be released on bail. Gomes Da Silva sounded demoralized during a Tuesday phone call with Nice, she said. But his spirits seemed brighter when Nice and Conrad met with him Wednesday night. 'He is very much looking forward to having the hearing tomorrow,' Conrad said. 'I think he can see the light at the end of the tunnel.' Read more: Milford student arrested by ICE has fever, sleeping on floor, attorney says Earlier this week, ICE tried to have Gomes Da Silva transferred to a detention facility in Rhode Island, but the move was blocked by a federal judge. Outrage at the teen's arrest and detainment has poured out of the Milford community over the last few days. On Sunday, protesters gathered downtown to call for Gomes Da Silva's immediate release. Two days later, at Milford's volleyball game, attendees wore shirts with the phrase 'Free Marcelo.' 'I did the humane thing': Worcester city councilor stands by actions at ICE arrest 'I need to hug my son': Milford student's family sends ICE video pleading for release Worcester city councilor faces criminal charges in connection with ICE arrest Read the original article on MassLive.
The Herald Scotland
6 days ago
- General
- The Herald Scotland
ICE detains Massachusetts student, sparking high school walkouts
The school had its graduation a day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Gomes Da Silva while he was heading with teammates to practice. The Brazilian teen was set to perform drums in the school's band at the June 1 graduation ceremony. Milford High School Principal Joshua Otlin said at the graduation ceremony that the community couldn't pretend all was well. "There is fear and anxiety, where there should be hope and confidence," he said on the school's turf field. "There is wrenching despair and righteous anger, where there should be gratitude and joy." Instead, graduation speakers admitted to making last-minute adjustments to address the arrest of their classmate. Class President Luke Benjamin Donis, a champion wrestler, urged his fellow graduates to "give whatever time they can" to join a large rally at Milford Town Hall after the high school ceremony. Who is Marcelo Gomes Da Silva? Gomes Da Silva arrived in the United States legally in 2012 on a visitor's visa that later turned into a student visa, his lawyers said. It isn't clear when that visa expired. He has no criminal history. He was active in his high school marching band and church band, along with excelling in school and was involved in extracurricular and faith-based activities, his immigration lawyer Robin Nice said in a statement. Gomes Da Silva does not pose a danger to the community and isn't a flight risk, Nice said. He has an immigration court hearing scheduled for the afternoon of June 5, where Nice said they would request his release on bond. His lawyers planned to pursue an asylum claim for him in the United States. On June 1, federal Judge Richard Stearns of Massachusetts issued an emergency order banning ICE from transferring Gomes Da Silva out of the state for at least 72 hours. On June 2, Milford High students staged a walkout protesting Gomes' detention. Students left their campus wearing Brazilian flags, holding signs and a white banner reading "Free Marcelo." Others donned white shirts inscribed with his name. ICE: If anyone is here unlawfully 'we're going to arrest them' ICE has said its agents were targeting Gomes Da Silva's father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, who is in the country illegally from Brazil. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said agents targeted Gomes-Pereira with information from local enforcement due to reckless driving, speeding that topped 100 mph. But when they stopped Gomes-Pereira's car, they arrested Gomes Da Silva. On June 2, Patricia Hyde, acting field director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations' in Boston, said they detained him because local agencies didn't cooperate with ICE. "When we go into the community and find others who are unlawfully here, we're going to arrest them," Hyde said. "He's 18 years old and he's illegally in this country. We had to go to Milford looking for someone else and if we come across someone else who is here illegally, we're going to arrest them." Officials said Gomes Da Silva was detained as officials announced the results of "Operation Patriot," which arrested 1,500 people across Massachusetts suspected of being in the country illegally. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Lyons said Gomes Da Silva's father hasn't turned himself in, although he knows he's the target of the operation. Reaction to the student's detention In a video posted to social media, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, said of the situation, "This isn't about public safety. This is about cruelty and fear engendered by the Trump administration." Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said the teenager's arrest left her "outraged." "Yet again, local officials and law enforcement have been left in the dark with no heads-up and no answers to their questions," she said in a statement. "I'm demanding that ICE provide immediate information about why he was arrested, where he is and how his due process is being protected." Nick Molinari, president of the Milford Teachers Association, said in a statement that ICE agents targeted a student in a "deliberate act of cruelty, traumatizing his family, friends and peers." "This is immoral, unnecessary and should be universally condemned," he said. "We will not stand by while the rights and humanity of our students are violated."
