MILFORD, Mass. — The Milford community is calling for the release of 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva. The teen was detained by ICE agents while on his way to volleyball practice at Milford High School on Saturday morning.
ICE officials said Monday that the teenager is in the United States illegally.
Coleen Greco is the family’s spokesperson. She says Gomes Da Silva is now being transferred to the Plymouth facility, but that he is not in good condition.
“Now they’re on day four of that and he isn’t eating,” she said. “Part of that is his anxiety, he can’t, but he’s in terrible conditions. He’s sleeping on the floor. I mean, imagine what that must feel like, if you can close your eyes for a second and think about what must be going through that kids mind. What were you thinking as an 18-year-old?” said Greco.
ICE officials say, Gomes Da Silva’s father, Joao Paulo Gomes Pereira, was the intended target. ICE officials say he had a habit of reckless driving, included speeding 100 miles per hour through residential areas.
“If they were really looking for Marcelo’s dad and they knew that was the car, that means they knew where he lives because the car is registered to the house, why not just go to the house?” she says.
Robin Nice, the immigration lawyer representing Gomes Da Silva, says he entered the country legally on a visitor’s visa nearly a month after he turned seven — that later turned into a student visa.
“They could of seen right at that moment that if they were looking for an adult man that this 18-year-old kid is not that guy,” Nice said.
Milford police chief Robert Tusino said the department was not involved in the operation.
“We don’t have the authority, and we don’t get involved in detainers, civil enforcement, illegal entry into the country, that’s not something the local police do,” Tusino said.
“He’s 18 years old, he’s unlawfully in this country,” said Patricia Hyde, the Field Director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in a press conference on Monday. “And unfortunately, we had to go to Milford to look for someone else, and came across him, and he was arrested. That’s where that stands.”
The “collateral arrest”— where agents arrest immigrants in the country illegally, even though they are not the intended target — was banned by the Biden administration but reinstated under President Trump.
A federal judge gave the government 14 days to respond to Marcelo Gomes’s petition to be released.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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