A Massachusetts student arrested by ICE on his way to volleyball
practice has been released
[June 06, 2025]
By LEAH WILLINGHAM
CHELMSFORD, Mass. (AP) — 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."
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Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 18, center, a Massachusetts high school
student who came to the U.S. from Brazil at age 7 and was detained
by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Saturday, May 31,
2025, speaks to journalists after being released from detention on
bond as Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., right, listens, Thursday, June
5, in Burlington, Mass. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)
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.
___
Associated Press reporter Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire,
contributed to this story.
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