Massachusetts teen released from ICE detention on bail
Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was detained for six days in an office building that was turned into a makeshift detention center
Marcelo's friends and classmates gather for a hearing in his case on June 5 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts
After six days in ICE detention, 18-year-old Massachusetts high school student Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was released from custody on a USD 2,000 bail. Gomes’ lawyer, Robin Nice, detailed the conditions to which the teenager was subjected to while in ICE custody in a makeshift detention center in a Burlington, Massachusetts office building.
“The Burlington (Massachusetts) facility is not a detention center, it’s a holding cell,” Nice told USA Today after a hearing on June 5. Nice had previously described Gomes’ conditions in a federal immigration court hearing on Gomes’ case. “He’s being held in just awful conditions no one should be subjected to: sleeping on a cement floor for just a few hours per night,” Nice said, but was interrupted by Immigration Judge Jenny Beverly, who said the hearing was not the proper venue to raise such concerns.
Gomes was held for six days in an office building which ICE agents had been using to do administrative work and recently converted into a rudimentary detention facility. Upon his release from custody, Gomes described his conditions. “I don’t wanna cry, but I wanna say that that place, it’s not good,” the Milford teenager said in a press conference upon his release from the office building.
Gomes described being held in close confinement with several grown men, with little food or access to hygiene. “I haven’t showered in six days,” Gomes said. “Sometimes our lunch and dinner would be crackers. And I would share with the people there because they’re like all 35-year-old men that have kids, and obviously, you know, they eat more than me, so I gave them food, I shared with them,” Gomes described.
ICE agents surrounded Gomes’ vehicle on Saturday, May 31, as he was picking up a friend for volleyball practice. Federal officials claim that they were searching for Gomes’ father Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, who is allegedly an undocumented immigrant. However, agents claim they decided to detain the younger Gomes when they found out he overstayed his visa.
The arrests of the family members of those targeted by ICE has been dubbed by the Trump administration as “collateral arrests,” referring to other immigrants encountered in the process of enforcement operations.
Trump officials have argued that collateral arrests are more likely in places where local authorities limit cooperation with ICE agents. “Sanctuary cities want to keep locking us out of jails,” Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told reporters. “They force us into the neighborhood to find the bad guys. When we find the bad guy, many times they’re with others.” Massachusetts limits how state law enforcement can interact with ICE, although Governor Maura Healey has made a point to emphasize that Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state – a statement which local immigrant rights activists have pushed back on.
“I think it’s offensive to call an arrest of an 18-year-old kid with no criminal record, a collateral arrest,” said Nice, Gomes’ lawyer, at a June 5 press conference. “He’s not collateral arrest. He’s a kid.”
The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Gomes’ father is a “public safety threat.” District court records show no criminal charges against Gomes-Pereira, only charges dropped by a judge after he paid a fine for a traffic violation.
