ICE Arrests High School Student Driving To Volleyball Practice

A Massachusetts high school student heading to volleyball practice was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday during a traffic stop targeting his father, officials said.

Marcelo Gomes, an 18-year-old student at Milford High School, “was not the target of the investigation” but was still taken into custody and faces deportation after federal agents determined the teen was also in the U.S. illegally, said ICE Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde at a press conference Monday.

The teenager from Brazil was driving a vehicle registered to his father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, whom the Department of Homeland Security called an illegal alien and “known public safety threat” due to his “habit of reckless driving” through residential areas.

Family and classmates of Marcelo Gomes Da Silva embrace as they protest outside of Milford Town Hall on Sunday.

Boston Globe via Getty Images

“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,” the DHS said in a statement Monday.

Gomes’ father remained wanted by ICE as of Monday, authorities said.

The teen’s arrest drew large protests over the weekend and condemnation from Gov. Maura Healey (D), who said the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has created “fear in our communities, and it’s making us all less safe.”

“Yet again, local officials and law enforcement have been left in the dark with no heads up and no answers to their questions,” she said in a statement Sunday.

The 18-year-old was detained by ICE on his way to volleyball practice.

Boston Globe via Getty Images

Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, defended the teen’s arrest to reporters at Monday’s press conference, calling it legal and arguing that the teen didn’t need to be a known violent or dangerous criminal to be taken into custody.

“Like any local law enforcement officer, if you encounter someone who has a warrant, or like I said is here illegally, we will take action on that,” he said. “I didn’t say he was dangerous, I said he was in this country illegally, and we’re not going to walk away from anybody.”

Hyde said the teen’s arrest was part of a mass immigration sweep in May that targeted “the most dangerous alien offenders in some of the most crime-infested areas of Massachusetts.”

ICE made nearly 1,500 arrests within the last 30 days. Everyone arrested was breaking the nation’s immigration laws, she said “but most of these individuals, 790 to be exact, had significant criminality,” including records for murder and drug crimes.

Hundreds of people marched in protest of Gomes’ arrest on Sunday from Milford High School’s graduation ceremony to the city’s Town Hall, according to NBC Boston.

Gomes’ girlfriend, Julianys Rentas Figueroa, told the local station that he was supposed to play drums in the school’s ceremony.

“He said they had put chains around his ankles and on his wrists and that he was first in, I think, Burlington and then transferred to Plymouth, and right now, I haven’t spoken to him since then, I don’t know how he’s doing,” she said.

Among those demonstrating on Sunday was state Sen. Becca Rausch (D), who condemned the teen’s arrest in a statement Monday.

“The cruelty and unlawful actions of the Trump Administration make all of us less safe, and the trampling of one person’s constitutional rights is the destruction of constitutional rights for us all,” she said.