Milford, Massachusetts high school student in ICE custody had expired student visa, attorney says
Marcelo Gomes, the Milford, Massachusetts high school student currently detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had a student visa, but it expired, his attorney said.
Gomes will have a hearing in his case Thursday. It will be an introductory hearing to start the deportation process. But he also has a bond hearing where a judge may decide whether Gomes can be released from custody during the process.
Gomes, an 18-year-old junior at Milford High School, was driving to volleyball practice Saturday morning when he was pulled over by several ICE agents and taken into custody.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the agents were looking for his father but detained the teen because they say he's also in the country illegally. The car Gomes was driving was registered to his father, 38-year-old Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira.
Marcelo Gomes immigration hearing
Gomes, who is originally from Brazil, is being held at an ICE detention center in Burlington, Massachusetts. A judge has ordered that Gomes should not be moved until his hearing Thursday afternoon at an immigration court in Chelmsford.
"At that time, we will request his release from ICE custody on bond," Gomes's attorney Robin Nice said in a statement Tuesday.
"He's 18 years old. He's unlawfully in this country and, unfortunately, we had to go to Milford to look for someone else and we came across him and he was arrested," Patricia Hyde, the ICE Boston field office director, told reporters Monday.
Nice said Gomes "entered the United States lawfully when he was just barely 7-years old" on a visitor's visa in 2013. That later changed to an international student visa, but that expired several years ago, Nice said.
Because Gomes is undocumented, he now faces deportation. Nice said the teen shouldn't be detained though.
"I would tell those people that there is a process for this. There is no reason whatsoever, why a kid with no criminal record should be detained. You can absolutely do removal, initiate removal proceedings without detaining someone," she told Lilia Luciano of CBS News.
Milford teen's father wanted by ICE
Gomes's cousin Julia Sampaio said the family's home in Milford has been surrounded by ICE agents since the teen's arrest Saturday.
"His dad hasn't turned himself in yet and his dad knows he's the target," Lyons told reporters Monday in Boston.
Gomes's father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, appeared in a video with his family Tuesday, pleading for his son's release.
"I love my son. We need Marcelo back home, it's no family without him," Gomes-Pereira said. "We love America. Please bring my son back."
