The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), arrested a high schooler in Massachusetts over the weekend, resulting in protests by other students.
Officials said that the student in question was taken into custody while he was on his way to volleyball practice. The Brazilian national was identified as Marcelo Gomes da Silva, who was a junior at Milford Public High School.
Massachusetts Student Arrested by ICE
Students at his high school then staged a walkout on Monday to support the teenager's arrest, holding signs that read, "Free Marcelo." The protests come after community demonstrations at the Milford Town Hall on Sunday, where participants called for the student's release.
On the other hand, ICE officials said that the teenager was not the target of the operation but was simply a collateral arrest. ICE acting Field Director Patricia Hyde noted that whenever they go out into the community and find other individuals who are illegally in the country, they will arrest them on sight, according to ABC News.
In a Monday press briefing, Hyde noted that they have been completely transparent with how their operations work. She added that da Silva, who was 18 years old, was an illegal immigrant in the United States.
It was later revealed that the teen's father was the actual target of the ICE operation, as revealed by Director Todd Lyons. The man, identified as Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, was targeted because he had a habit of reckless driving and going at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.
When ICE officers arrested the son of their target, he was driving his father's car on Saturday morning to join his teammates for volleyball practice. After they learned that the teen was also an illegal immigrant, they decided to take him into custody, NBC News reported.
ICE's Ongoing Operations
The teen's friends said that the student was born in Brazil but had been attending Milford Public Schools since he was six years old. His arrest comes as ICE operations in Massachusetts have already resulted in the detention of nearly 1,500 immigrants.
A spokesperson for the agency added that the teenager was still in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. Gomes da Silva's case is the latest in a series of arrests by the agency in the past few weeks.
The teen's lawyer, Miriam Conrad, said that ICE officers' actions in arresting her client were "outrageous." She noted that Gomes da Silva does not have a criminal record and his arrest does not make the community safer, as per the Straits Times.
