A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday denied federal immigration officials’ request to transfer a detained Milton high school student out of Massachusetts.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole rejected the emergency motion to move Marcelo Gomes Da Silva to Rhode Island. He has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Custody (ICE) since his arrest on May 31.
The judge also granted an emergency request for Gomes Da Silva to meet with his attorney, Miriam Conrad, on Wednesday afternoon for the first time since his arrest, according to court filings.
In a statement to MassLive, Conrad said ICE will be prevented from moving him for now. But U.S. officials could make the request again.
On Wednesday morning, federal immigration officials asked the judge to let the agency transfer Gomes Da Silva “as soon as possible, and as early as this afternoon,” to a detention facility in Rhode Island, according to court filings.
The filing states that Gomes Da Silva’s detention at his current location in Burlington, about an hour outside of Boston, is “not appropriate for his housing and care.”
Gomes Da Silva is being held in a holding room in Burlington, officials wrote.
“Despite ICE’s efforts, ICE has been unable to secure a bed for Petitioner at a detention facility in Massachusetts,” officials wrote.
An attorney for Gomes Da Silva informed ICE officials that he needs “medical attention and services and is seeking to meet in person” with him in preparation for an upcoming immigration court meeting, according to the court filing.
The detention facility in Burlington does not have medical facilities or an attorney-client meeting space, officials wrote, and said that a move to Rhode Island would be “even more appropriate” for Gomes Da Silva to meet with his lawyer.
“If such a transfer were to occur, the government does not contest that this Court retains jurisdiction and venue over this habeas case,” officials wrote.
Conrad, however, opposed the proposed move by ICE in court filings. She said she opposes ICE moving Gomes Da Silva before his June 5 hearing in immigration court.
Conrad said ICE did not explain why they needed to immediately move him after keeping him at their field office for four days.
She wrote that it would interfere with his bond hearing on Thursday and deprive him of his due process rights, and that ICE did not explain how they would transport Gomes Da Silva to his immigration hearing.
“If petitioner were moved to Rhode Island as quickly as the government proposed, that meeting would not occur as planned,” Conrad wrote.
Gomes Da Silva was picking up some of his volleyball teammates on Saturday morning when four vehicles driven by ICE representatives surrounded his car. Agents jumped out and detained Gomes Da Silva, his girlfriend previously told NBC-10 in Boston.
ICE agents were originally looking for Gomes Da Silva’s father, Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, said at a news conference on Monday.
ICE had “intelligence” on Gomes Da Silva’s father “from a local law enforcement agency,” Lyons said. ICE agents stopped the car Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was driving to volleyball practice that morning because it was his father’s.
The Milford Police Department had no part in assisting the detainment of Gomes Da Silva and did not make notifications to the agency about the location of his father’s car, Police Chief Robert Tusino said.
Lyons told reporters on Monday, “We were looking for his father — obviously, he’s the father of the year, because he brought his son up here illegally as well.”
Gomes Da Silva’s attorney filed a writ of habeas corpus petition within the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts on Sunday, and a judge has ordered ICE to give the court a 48-hour notice if they intend to transfer him out of state.
Gomes was born in Brazil but has lived in Milford since age 6. Milford students and residents protested the ICE arrest on Sunday and marched from the high school graduation ceremony to the town hall.
