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Students walk out for Milford student detained by ICE, attorney says he has no criminal record
An ICE official said agents were targeting Marcelo Gomes Da Silva's father, but the 18-year-old will remain in custody. A federal judge has blocked his deportation.
Scores of Milford High School students walked out of class Monday, days after their 18-year-old classmate was detained by federal immigration officials despite, according to his lawyer, having no criminal record.
“No one voted for high schoolers getting detained on their way to volleyball practice,” Robin Nice, the student’s lawyer, said in a statement. “No one benefits from this. These arbitrary detentions only rip families and communities apart.”
Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, a Milford High School junior originally from Brazil, was arrested Saturday when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulled over a car of students on their way to early morning volleyball practice.
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Nice said the high school student entered the country with a visa when he was 5 or 6 years old.
An ICE spokesperson said the agency was targeting his father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, who is also from Brazil. Agents instead arrested Gomes Da Silva, who they said is “illegally present.” The 18-year-old was driving his father’s car, according to ICE.
“Gomes-Da Silva remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” an ICE spokesperson said.
Gomes-Pereira, who ICE said is also undocumented, was targeted because he allegedly “has a habit of reckless driving at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour through residential areas,” the agency said. ICE said he “remains a threat to the local community every second he remains illegally in the United States.”
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Gomes-Pereira has not faced charges in Milford related to speeding, a search of court records show. The was charged in 2023 for allegedly driving with a revoked license and not stopping for a stop sign, but both charges were later dropped.
Lawyers for Gomes Da Silva filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court Sunday to challenge his detention. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ordered the federal government to not remove the Milford student from the country or to another court until at least Wednesday afternoon, according to court records.
“Free Marcelo,” students chanted outside of Milford High School, according to reports and multiple videos online. Many wore shirts and held a banner echoing the same message, written in Milford red, as seen in photos from the Milford Daily News. The demonstration came after hundreds gathered at Milford Town Hall to show support for the student after the high school’s graduation ceremony Sunday.
The boys’ volleyball coach, Andrew Mainini, told Boston.com he initially thought they overslept Saturday morning. One of the student athletes texted to let him know that the driver of their carpool had been detained by federal agents.
The coach said that three unmarked SUVs approached Gomes Da Silva’s vehicles and upwards of ten masked people, who appeared to be ICE agents, began questioning the three high schoolers and scanning their faces with cell phones on their way to practice.
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“It was shocking. It’s frankly disgusting,” Mainini said on Sunday.
Nice said in a statement that “it is outrageous that ICE detained him, particularly since ICE wasn’t even targeting him, by their own admission.”
“ICE didn’t have to detain Marcelo. They could have left him alone, or could have initiated immigration court proceedings without detaining him,” she said. “This is all unnecessary.”
This article was updated to include additional information about Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira.
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