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USA Today
13-06-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
'Atrocious:' lawyers, family and friends of detainees describe ICE detention
'Atrocious:' lawyers, family and friends of detainees describe ICE detention One man, Nexan Aroldo Asencio, was forced to sleep on the wet, foul-smelling floor of the bathroom, according to his wife. Show Caption Hide Caption Families of Los Angeles workers detained by ICE want justice Families of the people detained in ICE raids in Los Angeles are calling for for justice for their loved ones. The comments paint a similar portrait to the description from Marcelo Gomes da Silva, an 11th grader at Milford High School in Milford, Massachusetts who was held in Burlington for six days. The unusually large volume of immigrants in detention meant a backlog was created at the office in Burlington, Massachusetts "Two days, he was sleeping on the bathroom floor," one detainee's wife said her husband told her. "It was a small room and it had a toilet and a sink, but it was always wet the floor." Family members and lawyers of immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the agency's office in Burlington, Massachusetts, say their clients have been held for days in overcrowded holding cells with inadequate and unclean drinking water, little food and no opportunity to bathe. One man, Nexan Aroldo Asencio, has even been forced to sleep on the wet, foul-smelling floor of the bathroom, according to his wife. "He said, 'It's horrible here in Burlington: I'm sleeping on the bathroom floor. It smells like piss. It smells like poop,'" Christina Maria Toledo, Aroldo Ascencio's wife, told USA TODAY. "'Everyone's coming in and out. It's so packed. The only thing they gave me crackers and water that was dirty,'" she said her husband told her. Derege Demissie, a lawyer who has represented several people who have been held in the facility, told USA TODAY the conditions are "untenable." "They're atrocious, they're just ridiculous," he said. "They had at one point up to 18 women there in a small room, with one toilet, and there's a camera over the toilet. "They don't have a bed. They don't have a blanket. They don't have a pillow. They have only a mylar blanket like you get in the marathon." The comments paint a similar portrait to the description given by Marcelo Gomes da Silva, an 11th grader at Milford High School in Milford, Massachusetts, who was held in the Burlington ICE facility for six days. Lawyers for da Silva and other detainees say the holding cells are overflowing because recent widespread ICE raids have brought in more immigrants than ICE's facilities are equipped to handle. "Nobody deserves to be down there," da Silva, 18, told reporters upon his June 5 release. "You sleep on concrete floors. The bathroom – I have to use the bathroom in the open with like 35-year-old men. It's humiliating." More: Lawyer details 'horrendous conditions' faced by 11th grader detained by ICE In a statement, ICE contradicted some of the claims by detainees and noted that their stays are temporary. 'The ICE field office in Burlington is intended to hold detainees while they are going through the administrative intake process," the agency said in an emailed response to USA TODAY. "Afterwards, they are usually moved to a detention facility. There are occasions where detainees might need to stay at the Burlington office for a short period that might exceed the anticipated administrative processing time. While these instances are a rarity, the Burlington field office is equipped to facilitate a short-term stay when necessary. Detainees pending processing are given ample food, regular access to phones, showers and legal representation as well as medical care when needed.' Immigration raids cause overcrowding The ICE Boston field office in Burlington, Massachusetts, looks like any suburban office: a low-slung, concrete and dark-glass building that could just as easily be a school or customer call center. If ICE detention facilities are the equivalent of jail, where one is held during court proceedings, the office is the police station. The detainees normally spend a few hours there while they're being processed and awaiting transfer. But ICE has recently been conducting raids in Massachusetts that brought in nearly 1,500 undocumented immigrants by June 3. The arrests have caused widespread fear among immigrants in Massachusetts towns such as Milford. Plymouth County Correctional Facility, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, is the only ICE detention center in the state. The number of ICE detainees there more than doubled in the first three months of this year, according to an April 10 report from WCVB. The unusually large influx of immigrants in detention meant a backlog was created at the office in Burlington, causing people arrested on an immigration violation to be held for days in a facility unequipped for the purpose, according to lawyers for the detainees. "This is not set up for overnight detention," Demissie said. "It's just a holding place to process people for a few hours, but they've arrested so many people, they've created an overcrowding situation that they've created dangerous conditions." Those caught in the dragnet are often surprised to be stuck in a holding cell for days on end. "He was there the whole time, six days, and he was supposed to be there one to three hours," said Colleen Greco, the mother of one of Gomes da Silva's volleyball teammates, about the ordeal. More: How a Massachusetts town became a flashpoint for Trump's immigration crackdown "Two days, he was sleeping on the bathroom floor," Aroldo Asencio's wife Toledo said he told her. "It was a small room and it had a toilet and a sink, but it was always wet the floor, it looked like it was piss everywhere and it stunk, he said." After some people were transferred out of the facility, Aroldo Asencio was transferred from the bathroom to a holding cell. Gomes da Silva said after his release on June 5 that there were approximately 40 men in a windowless holding cell without beds. That's the room Aroldo Asencio was moved to after his first two nights in Burlington. Among his cellmates was Gomes da Silva, a fellow Milford resident. Gomes da Silva sent Toledo a voice memo in which he stated, "Your husband was treated just like everyone there with no respect – they treated all of us inhumanely." Like Gomes da Silva, Aroldo Asencio said he had no access to a shower in Burlington, Massachusetts. His first shower came after he was transferred to a longer-term detention facility in Vermont, four and a half days later. "He wasn't able to do anything, not brush his teeth, nothing," Toledo said. "They have no sanitary products, like soap," said Demissie, the immigration lawyer who had several clients in the facility. For a pillow, Gomes da Silva told his volleyball coach, Andrew Mainini, he used his shoes. The metallic blanket was so thin that he was able to fold it up into a bracelet to bring home with him as a souvenir. 'I don't want cake, I want my daddy' Aroldo Asencio is an immigrant from Guatemala who works as a framer, building houses. He and his wife, who is a native-born U.S. citizen from New Jersey, started a construction business in March. They have two four-year-old sons and Aroldo Asencio has already obtained an I-130, a document that recognizes his marriage to a citizen and is the process of applying for a green card. According to ICE, of the 1,500 immigrants arrested in Massachusetts before June 3, just under 800 of them have criminal records in the United States or abroad. Aroldo Asencio has no criminal record, Toledo said. He was arrested by ICE agents on May 30 who were looking for his brother Victor, who got arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol last year. Shortly after Aroldo Asencio left for work that morning, Toledo heard her 4-year-old son Damian screaming, 'Daddy!' because his father was outside. She and her twin sons watched the ICE agents arrest her husband. "It was one officer that went to him and another one, maybe 10 seconds later, grabbed him aggressively, went to put cuffs on," she recalled. "I said, 'Why you being so aggressive? He's not resisting.' His shirt was ripped. And another officer went to grab him, and they're being rough with him. And I'm telling them, 'He's not fighting, you don't need to grab him.' And my kids are watching. My kids have asthma, and I don't need them to be crying the way they are." The reason the arrest occurred right in front of their home, Toledo explained, is that when ICE stopped Aroldo Asencio, he didn't know who they were and he ran home. "He gets pulled over, but when he looks back, it's just a regular SUV. But all he sees is people running out of it with masks on. So he gets scared and runs off, and they're yelling 'Victor,' but he's not Victor." Aroldo Asencio and Toledo explained who he was and shared his immigration status, but the ICE agents arrested him anyway. "They asked about his status, and I'm like, 'He has an approved I-130. And they said, 'If you show us, we'll let him go,' Toledo said. But even after she showed them the paperwork, they didn't release him. Instead, he was transported to the police station and then to Hartford, Connecticut, and later to Burlington, without notifying his wife. "It was two days I didn't know anything about him," Toledo recalled. Eventually, he was able to call her from detention at the ICE office in Burlington. Toledo says her children, whose fourth birthday her husband missed on June 11, remain disturbed by what happened to their father and his ongoing absence. "My son Jhon is the one that's very attached to his father," Toledo said. "He didn't want to blow out the candles on his birthday, because he said, ''I don't want cake, I want my daddy.'' Demissie represents a client, Kary Diaz Martinez, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic whom he said is also married to a U.S. citizen and has no criminal record. At a deportation hearing in Boston on June 3, Martinez was released on her own recognizance by a judge, but ICE arrested her when she exited. "She did what she was supposed to do: appeared at her hearing," Demissie noted. "In the meantime, she's married to a U.S. citizen and would be entitled to seek permanent residency here through what is called an adjustment of status. ICE is basically blocking that whole process." "There is no reason to arrest her," Demissie continued, adding that the "inhumane conditions" violated her constitutional rights. Demissie filed a motion to get Martinez released on the grounds that the conditions in Burlington were inhumane. ICE then found room for her in a Chittenden, Vermont detention facility. They allowed Demissie to meet with this client at a courthouse, after refusing to let them meet in person. 'Like cat food' A constant theme in the testimony of ICE detainees in Burlington is the extreme inadequacy of the food and water. "When they asked for more food or water, they wouldn't give it to them," Toledo said, citing her conversations with her husband. "They described it as like cat food," Demissie said, referring to his clients' description of the food they were given. That may be because the building lacks the equipment needed for cooking. 'We have no kitchens and no dining rooms, and therefore we cannot keep people overnight or over the weekend,' Bruce Chadbourne, then-New England regional director of ICE, said at a public meeting in 2007. ICE did not respond to a request from USA TODAY to verify if this is still the case. In response to an inquiry for a previous story on Gomes da Silva's conditions, ICE said he was provided meals, including sandwiches. Whatever Gomes da Silva ate in captivity, it clearly wasn't enough, according to Mainini, his volleyball coach. "He seemed thin," said Mainini, who saw Gomes da Silva the night he was released. "As someone who works out with him and sees him daily, he looked thinner than just six days earlier. And it was pretty noticeable in his face, specifically." 'ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously," Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a prior statement in response to Gomes da Silva's allegations. "ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that all ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards.' Among the traumas Gomes da Silva described to Greco was that ICE asked his cellmates to sign papers in English, which they did not understand. Gomes da Silva speaks Portuguese and Spanish, so he translated the documents, which were often deportation orders. Some of the men then broke down in tears when he told them what the papers said. Greco said that Gomes da Silva emerged from captivity famished and immediately ordered a 20-piece chicken McNuggets from McDonald's. "He talked the entire ride home," said Greco, who picked him up because Gomes da Silva's parents are afraid to leave their house and risk ICE arresting them. (His father was the target when Gomes da Silva was pulled over, according to ICE.) "I said, 'You don't have to talk to me,'" the family friend recalled. "He said, 'No, I want to tell all these stories.'" Greco said.
CBS News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Massachusetts town looking into ICE facility zoning violations after teen described conditions
The New England Regional Headquarters for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is supposed to be a processing facility where people stay for only hours, and the town of Burlington where the facility is located says that's how it is zoned. "What I'm just concerned about is fair and humane treatment for anybody in Burlington," said Mike Espejo, chairman of the Select Board, "and this doesn't seem like that's happening." Milford teen describes conditions He tells WBZ-TV the case of Marcelo Gomes da Silva has shined a new light on what is allegedly happening behind the doors. "No one deserves to be down there," Gomes da Silva told reporters when he posted bail last week. "You sleep on concrete floors, I have to use the bathroom in the open. It's humiliating." He described what he called inhumane conditions for six days, leaving the town now more than concerned. "We had no idea anything like that was happening," said Espejo. It is why town officials are now gathering information on the scope of the operations inside the building and whether the ICE facility is violating local zoning laws. "We are checking with our legal counsel to see if we can do any type of zoning enforcement, or health code violation enforcement," Espejo said. "Anything we can do to just make sure that people are at least being treated humanely." Town was told no one held overnight There was some opposition in the town when the facility first opened in 2008, but residents received assurances that no one would be held overnight. Espejo said they were told the same thing in recent weeks when local officials began inquiries amid rumors. In a statement ICE tells WBZ-TV, "There are occasions where detainees might need to stay at the Burlington office for a short period that might exceed the anticipated administrative processing time." The statement goes on to say, "detainees are given ample food, regular access to phones, showers and legal representation as well as medical care when needed." That's not what Marcelo Gomes da Silva said he experienced. "I haven't showered in six days. I haven't done anything," he said when he was released. Espejo says it's a gray area for the town. "It's a federal facility so we don't know how much jurisdiction we have over it," Espejo said. He says town officials feel misled about a building where they believed mostly paperwork was being done.
CBS News
11-06-2025
- CBS News
Massachusetts teen detained by ICE says he "was in complete shock"
Milford teen detained by ICE says he was 'in complete shock' Milford teen detained by ICE says he was 'in complete shock' Milford teen detained by ICE says he was 'in complete shock' A Milford High School student who was detained by ICE is speaking about the experience that changed his life forever. It's a case that has drawn national attention and mobilized local support. Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 18, was arrested by ICE agents more than a week ago while on his way to volleyball practice. According to ICE, the teen was in the U.S. on an expired visa. In an interview with WBZ, Gomes da Silva recounted the moment he was pulled over. "I was in complete shock. I didn't know what was going on," he said. "I didn't know what I did. I was confused. I didn't cry, I wasn't angry." Wants to help other immigrants Gomes da Silva spent six days in ICE custody at the Burlington, Massachusetts detention facility. He described sleeping on a concrete floor in a cell shared with several older men. His experience in the facility has the high school senior turning to activism. "That's my goal. Definitely to help the immigrants," he said. The arrest has upended his life, but it has also sparked widespread support from the Milford community. "Everyone hugging me, everyone crying but tears of happiness because I was out," he said. "It made me super happy, the fact that a community could come together in such a short span of time and do so much work together." Family concerned about future Though released, Gomes da Silva and his family remain fearful. ICE has not ruled out further action against his father, and the family is afraid to leave the house, relying on friends to bring them groceries and essential supplies. Marcelo Gomes da Silva from Milford, Massachusetts was detained by ICE. CBS Boston When asked whether he harbored resentment toward his father, who ICE was looking for when they pulled him over, he said no. "He came here for me" "No, I'm not mad at my dad at all for anything he's done. He came here to live a better life. He came here for me. My dad came here so I could have a good life." In a statement, ICE said that agents were conducting an operation to arrest a "known public safety threat" when Gomes da Silva was stopped. The agency added that the teenager was found to be in the U.S. illegally and is subject to removal. Gomes da Silva and his legal team are now applying for asylum, a process that can take years to resolve.
USA Today
11-06-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Milford, MA, teen describes 6-days in ICE facility: 'Nobody deserves to be down there'
Milford, MA, teen describes 6-days in ICE facility: 'Nobody deserves to be down there' Show Caption Hide Caption Students walk out of school to rally for classmate detained by ICE Students at a high school in Milford, Massachusetts, walked out of class en masse on Monday to support their classmate Marcelo Gomes da Silva. 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes da Silva was released on bail after being detained for six days in an immigration facility. Da Silva was arrested while driving his teammates to volleyball practice, with ICE agents stating they intended to apprehend his father. The teen described poor conditions within the facility, including sleeping on concrete floors and limited access to basic necessities. Congressmen Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss visited the facility to investigate the conditions and advocate for due process in immigration enforcement. Marcelo Gomes da Silva, the 18-year-old Milford, Massachusetts, teen who was arrested last weekend while on his way to volleyball practice, spoke to the media shortly after being released on bail from an immigration facility in Burlington on June 5. "Nobody deserves to be down there," da Silva told reporters as he gathered with his lawyers and Congressmen Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss, both Democrats from Massachusetts. "You sleep on concrete floors. The bathroom — I have to use the bathroom in the open with like 35-year-old men. It's humiliating." Moulton and Auchincloss said they returned from Washington, D.C., on Thursday to speak with da Silva and to inspect the detention center. Da Silva was arrested on May 31 while picking up his teammates so they could go to volleyball practice ahead of a playoff game on Tuesday. He was held for six days, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents told him they were trying to apprehend his father, who was wanted due to his driving record. ICE agents followed his car for a while as they moved through Milford, then parked behind him as he pulled into a teammate's driveway, said da Silva. Agents turned their lights on and approached the vehicle, asking for da Silva's license and registration, then took him into custody. The teen said he "didn't specifically know about my immigration status." While in detention, was told his student visa expired in 2015 — he had arrived in the United States two years earlier. "I will always remember this place," da Silva said. "I will always remember what it was. I will always be grateful for what I have outside of this place." Da Silva didn't learn anything about walkouts held at Milford schools to support him and to call attention to his situation until after he was released. "We don't have TV in there," he said. "We don't get to see the daylight." How the Burlington, Massachusetts, detention center was described The teenager described his six days in custody by saying he was sleeping on the floor with very few blankets and that for lunch and dinner, they were given crackers. Most of the other men were in their 30s and larger than him, so he shared his portions. "The doors are very big. There is only a small gap, and there are days we peek out of the gap and say, 'Guard, can you give us something?' and he'll say 'Yeah, I'll get you it.' And he would never come back," he said. "I asked for a Bible and for people to say, for me to say the pledge of allegiance at my school every single day and not have a Bible in a federal agency place is horrible. "To me, I choose God first." Da Silva added that he worked as a translator for other detainees who would bring him paperwork they didn't understand and ask what it said before signing it. Da Silva is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese. He said men would break down and cry when they were told it was deportation paperwork, because they have families and lives in the United States. "Even, if they have to be deported, so be it, but do it the right way," da Silva said. Adding, "Most people down there are all workers. They all got caught going to work. And these people have families, man, like they have kids to go home to. And there's, like, genuine criminals out there that people aren't giving attention to. They are getting good people that don't deserve to be here." Congressmen Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss support due process and secure borders Moulton and Auchincloss both spoke ahead of da Silva, saying their constituents support secure borders and immigration laws but they also said they supported due process. "This is not what law and order looks like," said Auchincloss, whose 4th Congressional District includes Milford. The pair also spoke out against having detainees sleeping on the floor, the lack of quality of the food and meals, as well as bathrooms. "These are not (American) values. ... Jake and I are going to go in and inspect it for ourselves," said Moulton.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How a Massachusetts town became a flashpoint for Trump's immigration crackdown
MILFORD, MASSACHUSETTS − Immigrants in this blue-collar town say they are living in constant fear of ICE raids that have rounded up 1,500 undocumented people throughout Massachusetts. Among those arrested was Marcelo Gomes da Silva an 11th grader at Milford High School, whose story has drawn widespread attention for the way it throws into stark relief immigration-enforcement tensions that exist all over the country. "There's been very high levels of anxiety in the community about immigration enforcement for many months," says Milford High School Principal Joshua Otlin. Gomes da Silva's family, who brought him to the United States from Brazil at the age of 7, are just some of the thousands of immigrants from Latin America whose arrival has reshaped Milford in the last two decades. And now their community is in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's aggressive deportation efforts. The fear is pervasive throughout the community, says Reggie Lima, a Brazilian American who on a recent day wore a Trump hat in Milford's Padaria Brasil Bakery. "Every day, it's on the back of everybody's mind. Nobody leaves home today without checking around, checking the windows, to see if ICE is outside," Lima says. Gomes Da Silva, 18, was arrested by ICE agents on May 31 when he was stopped on his way to volleyball practice. Federal officials said they targeted his father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, who they say is undocumented and has a history of reckless driving. The next day, Gomes da Silva's girlfriend and the other seniors at Milford High School graduated under a cloud of angst. Not only was Gomes da Silva − the drummer in the school band performing that day − absent but so were two of the graduating students and the families of many others. "A lot of people's parents were very scared to go to graduation, because there were a lot of false rumors saying that immigration could be around school property," said an 18-year-old Brazilian American who just graduated. USA TODAY is withholding the names of high school students interviewed for this story, because many members of the community expressed fear that they or their family would be subject to arrest or deportation. "It was a very difficult day, but it's definitely going to be memorable, because right after graduation, the first thing that all my friends did, we walked with our teachers, our friends, in our in caps and gowns − I was in my heels − all the way down to town hall protesting for Marcelo," she added. "I heard many stories of people who didn't cheer for their children," for fear of being exposed to immigration authorities, said Colleen Greco, the mother of a volleyball teammate of Gomes da Silva's. Gomes da Silva was released on June 5 after posting a $2,000 bond set by an immigration judge that afternoon. His arrest drew immediate backlash and condemnation from members of Congress. If Milford isn't Any Town USA, it is at least Any Town New England. The Brutalist concrete high school is surrounded by ball fields and a sea of parking. The strip malls are filled with chain restaurants, including three Dunkin' Donuts. The historic downtown is centered around a wood-frame town hall with a cupola-crowned clock tower. Its environs are filled with wood siding-clad houses behind small lawns, some protected by white-picket fences. While the mainline Protestant churches − Episcopal, Methodist, Congregationalist, and Unitarian − reflect the British roots of the town's original settlers, a nearby Catholic church demonstrates its more recent immigrant history: once catering to the Irish and Italians who dominated the population in the 20th Century, it now offers services in Spanish and Portuguese, as well as English. "When I grew up in Milford, Milford was pretty indistinguishable from other suburbs in this part of Massachusetts," said Otlin, who graduated in 1996 from the high school where he's now principal. Back then, he said, it was "almost exclusively white." "Today Milford is very, very different than it was," he continued. "Most of our students identify as something other than white, native-born, English-speaking Americans. Here at the high school, 45% of our families need a translator to communicate with the school." According to the U.S. Census, 30% of Milford's 30,000 residents are foreign-born. The Census undercounts immigrants, who may be afraid to respond to the survey, according to experts and the Census Bureau itself. A 2023 Census Bureau report found 19.8% of noncitizens located in administrative records could not be matched to an address in the 2020 Census, compared to 5.4% of among citizens. Still, Census data show a massive surge in immigration: Since 2000, both the Hispanic population and the foreign-born population have tripled in Milford. The name Massachusetts might evoke liberal coastal elites, like the ones at Harvard that Trump is currently attacking with every weapon he can find. But Milford is 30 miles and a world away from the Ivy League campus. Just one-third of adults in Milford have a bachelor's degree, compared to 80% in Cambridge. And while it's easier to find a New York Yankees fan than a Republican in Harvard Yard, 42% of Milford voters went for Trump last year. "Massachusetts has the 6th highest foreign-born proportion in the country at 18%," wrote Mark Melnik, a researcher at the UMass Donahue Institute, part of the University of Massachusetts, in an email to USA TODAY. "Milford at 30% is higher than Boston (27%)!" In the late 19th Century, the local economy revolved around extracting the town's trademark pink granite, which is found in buildings as far away as Paris. In the mid-20th Century, Archer Rubber was a major employer. Now, it's the health care and biotechnology industry around Greater Boston. But even the white-collar economy needs manual laborers to build and maintain the houses and office parks. "For most of our immigrant families, they're working in the skilled trades, mostly in the construction trades," Otlin said. And on Main Street, many of the stores feature signage in Spanish and Portuguese and sell products from Latin America such as soccer jerseys and plantain leaves. Many of the longtime residents enthusiastically embrace the new diversity. "They have the best meat markets," Greco said. And others express their region's trademark tolerance. "I think he's a folk hero, and I'm behind him," said Tom, a middle-aged white neighbor in a baseball hat, who was passing Gomes da Silva's house on June 6. Gomes da Silva's friends streamed in and out, but no one answered the door for a reporter. "I think it's no different than when Irish moved in, in the late 1800s, and Italians moved in in the early 1900s," Tom, a lifelong Milford resident of Irish ancestry who declined to give his last name, added. "Only the laws have changed, but we're all human." Even before Gomes da Silva was picked up, the already-pervasive fear of immigration authorities led one of Marcelo's volleyball teammates to be in his car that day. "The night before, I had asked Marcelo for a ride to practice because, ironically enough, my mother wasn't going to work that Saturday and she asked me if I could get a ride with a friend because she's too scared of going outside and driving me to practice," said the friend. Two days after Trump's inauguration, a rumor circulated in the Milford High School community that ICE would be arresting undocumented immigrants at school the following day. Students say most of the school population was absent the next day, including native-born citizens who feared their parents could be arrested picking them up or dropping them off. "There was no one in the school, no one," said a 17-year-old female classmate of Gomes da Silva's. "My parents are the ones who drive me to school, going back and forth, if they were to get stopped on the way there," said the 18-year-old recent graduate, who stayed home from school that day. "Also I was just concerned, if (ICE) were to ever follow me back home and see where I live, and just camp out there one day. I was just concerned for the safety of my parents." "Everywhere is kind of crazy: Chelsea, Framingham," said Lima, the Brazilian American Trump supporter, referring to two other Massachusetts towns with large Latino immigrant populations. "You see (ICE) every day. I saw them this morning." "Now people are afraid of driving vans with letters on the top, because they are targeting vans and commercial vehicles," Lima, a construction worker, said. Since so many of the manual laborers are immigrants, ICE will "see a van with the letters on the top, like roofers," and target it for immigration enforcement, he said. "People, including me, are very scared to leave their homes and are afraid of getting stopped doing nothing," said Andres, an Ecuadoan immigrant who works in roofing and lives in Milford, in Spanish. "You don't see people in the streets in the mornings," said Ingrid Fernandes, a Brazilian immigrant who owns Padaria Brasil Bakery. "It's hurt a lot. Almost 80% of my customers aren't coming for two weeks." "My parents have been afraid to leave the house," said the female classmate of Gomes da Silva's, who is also Brazilian American. "Me and my sister have been doing the shopping because we're citizens." Others say their families are having groceries delivered. They liken the lifestyle to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees at Oliveira's Market, a grocery store selling Brazilian foods in downtown Milford, say business has been unusually slow in recent weeks, since the raids began, because their customers are afraid to go out. "ICE was looking initially for immigrant criminals, now they are targeting everyone," said an Oliveira's employee, who declined to give his name. Speaking in Portuguese via a translator, he added that he knows people who have been detained and deported. When a white reporter and photographer arrived at Oliveira's Market, a man on his way in from the parking lot turned around and left. At a variety store on Main Street, the elderly Hispanic woman behind the counter was so terrified by journalists asking questions that she began to cry. Nearly everyone in town had heard about Marcelo's case and the overwhelming sentiment was sympathetic to him. "It's a very sad story for everybody," Fernandes said. His six-day detention featured what his lawyer called "horrendous" conditions, including sleeping on a cement floor with no pillow and only a thin metallic blanket. Meals, he said at a press conference, often consisted of nothing but crackers. "He seemed thin," said Andrew Mainini, Gomes da Silva's volleyball coach, who saw him the night he was released. "As someone who works out with him and sees him daily, he looked thinner than just six days earlier. And it was pretty noticeable, in his face, specifically." ICE's media affairs office told USA TODAY Gomes da Silva was provided meals, including sandwiches. 'He was provided bedding, given access to hygiene including showers, and had access to his lawyer," said Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin in an emailed statement. ICE defends Gomes da Silva's arrest, noting that he wasn't the target of the operation but that anyone in the country illegally is subject to deportation. According to ICE, just over half of the immigrants recently arrested in Massachusetts have criminal convictions in the United States or abroad. 'ICE officers engaged in a targeted immigration enforcement operation of a known public safety threat and illegal alien, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira," McLaughlin said. "Local authorities notified ICE that this illegal alien has a habit of reckless driving at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour through residential areas endangering Massachusetts residents." "Officers identified the target's vehicle, and initiated a vehicle stop with the intention of apprehending Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira," McLaughlin continued. "Upon conducting the vehicle stop, officers arrested Marcelo Gomes-Da Silva, an illegally present, 18-year-old Brazilian alien and the son of the intended target. While ICE officers never intended to apprehend Gomes-DaSilva, he was found to be in the United States illegally and subject to removal proceedings, so officers made the arrest." In 2011, Milford resident Maureen Maloney suffered a horrific tragedy when her 23-year-old son was killed by a drunk driver who was in the country illegally. The driver also had a criminal record for assaulting a police officer in 2008. Maloney became an advocate for removing undocumented immigrants who commit crimes. She went on to campaign for Trump in 2016 and to serve for four years on the Republican state committee. In Maloney's view, while what happened to Marcelo is unfortunate "collateral damage," the ICE raids are beneficial because of the criminals they have caught. "If these raids save only one life or prevent only one more child from being sexually assaulted, it was worth it," Maloney said. "No matter how bad it was for Marcelo, and I'm sure it was traumatic for him, he'd probably rather that than having lost a sibling or been sexually abused as a young child." Even some Brazilian Americans agree. "It's needed because we've been having a lot of criminals all over the place," Lima said. "They (racially) profile. They look at you, you look Spanish, you speak with an accent, yeah: 'where's your papers?'" Lima noted. "But it's complicated," he added. "By doing that, they've caught like murderers, people who committed crimes in Brazil." Maloney argues that responsibility for the large number of non-criminals picked up in the ICE raids lies with Healey, the state legislature and a 2017 state court decision limiting immigration-enforcement cooperation with ICE. "As far as what occurred with Marcelo, this is a direct result of Massachusetts' sanctuary policies and Gov. Healey refusing to cooperate with ICE, because if ICE could apprehend these criminal aliens in a more controlled environment, we wouldn't be having nonviolent, noncriminal aliens being picked up as collateral damage," she said. Gov. Healey disputed those claims in a statement sent to USA TODAY by her office. 'Massachusetts law enforcement regularly partners with federal authorities to keep our communities safe," she said. "Our Department of Correction already has an agreement to notify ICE when someone in their custody is scheduled to be released. But instead of focusing on removing criminals, the Trump Administration and ICE are arresting people with no criminal records who live here, work here, and have families here. ICE's actions are creating considerable fear in our communities and making us all less safe.' The high school community responded to its shock and upset over Gomes da Silva's arrest by quickly organizing in opposition to his detention and possible deportation. On June 2, the first day of classes after Gomes da Silva's arrest, hundreds of students staged a walkout and a rally in protest. "The students were exemplary," Otlin said. "It was a very emotionally intense experience for the students and everyone who was there to bear witness to it. I've worked in public schools for 25 years, this is my 15th year as an administrator. I've never seen anything like it. Students sobbing and chanting and praying together. Students coming up to the microphone and speaking from their hear to the press and doing so in incredibly powerful ways." The next day, the boys' volleyball team's playoff volleyball game brought hundreds of students, teachers, and community members in white t-shirts with "Free Marcelo" written on them. "People came to support the volleyball team and people came to be together," Otlin said. "This was and remains a traumatic event for hundreds of young people and parents and families in our community, and I think people desperately wanted to come together and be together." The team lost, however. Coach Mainini said the volleyball team's goal is to support by Gomes da Silva by "maintaining the community." "Any time he's with the team, any time he's active, he's not going to be thinking of the challenges ahead of him," Mainini said. "And that's one of the best things we can offer him." Meanwhile, other Milford High School students and recent alumni still have to contend with the omnipresent threat of immigration enforcement descending upon their family. "My parents have had the conversation with me about moving to Brazil, like what would happen in case something were to ever happen," said Gomes da Silva's female classmate. "Me personally, I don't want to go to Brazil, because I've never been there. I don't know what it's like. This is what I know. This is the only thing I know. I've never really traveled outside the country." "And like, I don't want to leave my parents, I wouldn't want to leave my parents, but I'd stay for my last year of high school, to finish high school with my sister. I wouldn't want to leave my mom and dad, but I wouldn't want to leave my home, to leave the United States. And it's a very scary and weird conversation to have with them." "Sadly, that's the reality we have to live: I have to think about whether I'm going to come home and my parents won't be there," the recent graduate said. Contributing: John Walker, Kevin Theodoru, USA TODAY NETWORK. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 11th grader's ICE arrest spotlights a town reshaped by immigration
