Milford teen could face 2-3 year wait for asylum decision after ICE detention
Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, an 18-year-old who was released after being detained in an ICE field office in Burlington for six days, is seeking asylum to remain in the United States, according to attorney Robin Nice.
Gomes Da Silva will attend a master hearing in October, where he will learn the date of what is known as a final hearing. During the final hearing, Nice will present her client's asylum case to a judge, who will then decide on the matter, she told MassLive.
The lawyer estimates, however, that Gomes Da Silva's final hearing will take place in two to three years. She claimed that President Donald Trump's firing of immigration judges is the reason Gomes Da Silva may have to wait so long for his hearing.
There is currently no set date for the October master hearing, Nice said.
Nice does not think ICE will try to detain Gomes Da Silva again. She said ICE must show there is a change in his behavior that indicates he is a flight risk or a risk to the community in order to detain him.
'I'm not particularly worried,' she said. 'It will be a long process for him, but I don't think he's at risk of getting detained again.'
ICE agents arrested Gomes Da Silva on May 31 as he was picking up his friend on the way to volleyball practice. He was released on June 5. He is now in Milford with his family and returned to Milford High School on June 10.
Read more: 'God has a plan' — Milford teen says faith gave him strength during ICE detainment
During a press conference in Boston on June 2, ICE officials claimed that agents were seeking to arrest Gomes Da Silva's father, João Paulo Gomes-Pereira.
Officials claimed that Gomes-Pereira is a danger to Massachusetts residents — a claim that Gomes Da Silva categorically rejects. The teenager also told MassLive that he thinks ICE lied about wanting to arrest his father.
'They say they wanted him, but it's clearly not true,' Gomes Da Silva said. 'They didn't ask about him. They really just wanted me. They used him as a defense.'
A cousin of Gomes Da Silva previously told MassLive that the teenager, father and mother all came to the United States from Brazil and are not American citizens.
Gomes Da Silva's father and mother have not been targeted so far, Nice said. She doesn't know why.
'If ICE wanted to, they could just have an arrest,' she said. 'There's nothing really stopping them, they know where they live. I don't know if it's laziness or incompetence or maliciousness.'
If ICE does arrest Gomes Da Silva's father and mother, they would be eligible for what is known as cancellation of removal. Cancellation of removal is a form of immigration relief that can be awarded to certain non-residents of the United States if they meet specific requirements. One of the requirements is having a continuous physical presence in the United States for 10 years or more and being a person of 'good moral character,' according to an application from the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review.
However, because the only way to receive cancellation of removal is to be arrested by ICE, Nice said the family is in a 'Catch-22 situation.'
'We're kind of laying the groundwork as we can prepare to go forward if and when that happens,' Nice said. 'The ball is in ICE's court at this point in terms of whether they're actually going to do anything.'
In a previous statement sent to MassLive, ICE did not provide a definitive statement as to whether they are still seeking to arrest Gomes-Pereira.
'For our best chances for operational success and to ensure officer safety, we would rather not comment on current or future efforts to apprehend illegal alien offenders,' an ICE spokesperson wrote in an email to MassLive.
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Read the original article on MassLive.

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