On Saturday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested eighteen-year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva in Milford, Massachusetts. He was just riding his bike to volleyball practice when they detained him. His arrest has drawn significant public outcry and prompted a lawsuit filed on his behalf, raising questions about immigration enforcement practices and their impact on communities.
Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, who entered the U.S. on a student visa 18 years ago, has been living in Milford. Even as a law-abiding resident, he was imprisoned in an enforcement action that didn’t need to target him. What US officials had been doing was chasing down his father, who is still at large. The incident has raised concern among the community and members of the immigrant justice movement at large.
In response to his arrest, hundreds held a rally in Milford on Sunday, protesting the actions of ICE. Democratic state Gov. Maura Healey expressed her outrage in terms. She was “disturbed and outraged” by the arrest of a young man on his way to band practice.
In response to the arrest, a federal judge acted quickly. He issued an emergency order prohibiting any authorities from transferring Marcelo Gomes Da Silva out of Massachusetts for at least 72 hours. This order comes as a relief for him temporarily as his case continues to develop.
“We’re doing the job that ICE should have been doing all along.” – Todd Lyons, Acting Director of ICE
Todd Lyons — with ICE — pointed out that we will always have this role, to which the audience would come back with, of course you will. He admitted that Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was not the target of this operation. This stunning discovery beggars belief and leads to serious implications for the datamethods used by enforcement agencies.
Patricia Hyde manages the enforcement and removal operations for Boston. Though she did not speak to this individual case, she reiterated the agency’s absolute and total steadfastness to their mouthing empty platitudes about their mission statement. The situation has prompted discussions about the balance between immigration enforcement and community safety, especially concerning individuals who pose no threat.
As local activists point out, these ruthless tactics don’t just shatter the rights of Americans. They sow terror among immigrant communities. The protests taking place now in Milford are a part of this national backlash to what is increasingly seen as overreach by federal immigration authorities.