A Massachusetts high school student who was arrested by immigration agents on his way to volleyball practice has been released from custody after a judge granted him bond Thursday.
Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 18, who came to the U.S. from Brazil at age 7, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Saturday. Authorities have said the agents were looking for the Milford High School teenager’s father, who owns the car Gomes da Silva was driving at the time and had parked in a friend’s driveway.
Speaking with members of the media outside the detention center shortly after his release on $2,000 bond, Gomes da Silva described “humiliating” conditions and said his faith helped him through his six days of detention.
On his wrist, he wore a bracelet made from the thin sheet of metallic blanket he was given to sleep on the cement floor.
“I’ll always remember this place,” he said. “I’ll always remember how it was.”
His lawyer, Robin Nice, told reporters after the hearing in Chelmsford that his arrest “shouldn’t have happened in the first place. This is all a waste.”
“We disrupted a kid’s life. We just disrupted a community’s life,” Nice said. “These kids should be celebrating graduation and prom, I assume? They should be doing kid stuff, and it is a travesty and a waste of our judicial process to have to go through this.”
She said Gomes da Silva was confined to a room holding 25 to 35 men, many twice his age, most of the time he was detained, with no windows, time outside, privacy to use the restroom or permission to shower. Nice said that at one point Gomes da Silva, who is active in his local church, asked for a Bible and was denied.
Gomes da Silva, who said his father taught him to “put other people first,” said many of the men imprisoned with him didn’t speak English and didn’t understand why they were there. He had to inform some of them they were being deported, and then watched them break down in tears.
“I told every single inmate down there: When I’m out, if I’m the only one who was able to leave that place, I lost,” he said. “I want to do whatever I can to get them as much help as possible. If they have to be deported, so be it. But in the right way, in the right conditions. Because no one down there is treated good.”
He said some days, he was given only crackers to eat, which he shared with cellmates. His first stop after being released was for McDonald’s chicken nuggets and French fries.
Not ICE’s target, but detained anyway
U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said earlier this week ICE officers were targeting a “known public safety threat” and Gomes da Silva’s father “has a habit of reckless driving at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour through residential areas.”
“While ICE officers never intended to apprehend Gomes da Silva, he was found to be in the United States illegally and subject to removal proceedings, so officers made the arrest,” she said in a statement.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said Monday that “like any local law enforcement officer, if you encounter someone that has a warrant or … he’s here illegally, we will take action on it.”
Upon his release, Gomes da Silva pushed back on ICE’s characterizations of his father: “Everything I got was from my dad. He’s a good person. He never did anything wrong.”
When he was able to call his parents during his detainment, Gomes da Silva said his father sobbed and told him the family was scared to leave the house.
Gomes da Silva initially entered the country on a visitor visa and was later issued a student visa that has since lapsed, Nice said. He told reporters he didn’t know his immigration status until he was arrested.
He said an officer asked him, “Do you know why you were arrested?” He said no.
“I told her, ma’am, I was 7 years old. I don’t know nothing about that stuff,” he recalled. “I don’t understand how it works.”
Nice described him as deeply rooted in his community and a dedicated member of both the school marching band and a band at his church.
The immigration judge set a placeholder hearing date for a couple of weeks from Thursday, but it might take place months from that, Nice said.
“We’re optimistic that he’ll have a future in the United States,” she said.
A shaken community
“I love my son. We need Marcelo back home. It’s no family without him,” João Paulo Gomes Pereira said in a video released Wednesday. “We love America. Please, bring my son back.”
The video showed the family in the teen’s bedroom. Gomes da Silva’s sister describes enjoying watching movies with her brother and the food he cooks for her: “I miss everything about him.”
Students at Milford High staged a walkout Monday to protest his detainment. Other supporters packed the stands of the high school gymnasium Tuesday night, when the volleyball team dedicated a match to their missing teammate.
Amani Jack, a recent Milford High graduate, said her classmate’s absence loomed large over the graduation ceremony, where he was supposed to play in the band. She said if she had a chance to speak with the president, she’d ask him to “put yourself in our shoes.”
“He did say he was going to deport criminals,” she said. “Marcelo is not a criminal. He’s a student. I really want him to take a step in our shoes, witnessing this. Try and understand how we feel. We’re just trying to graduate high school.”
Veronica Hernandez, a family advocate from Medford who said she works in a largely Hispanic community where ICE has had an active presence, said cases like Gomes da Silva’s show immigration enforcement is serious about taking “anybody” without legal status, not just those accused of crimes.
“I think seeing that something so simple as a child driving themselves and their friends to volleyball practice at risk struck a chord,” she said.
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Associated Press reporter Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.
