An immigration judge has granted bond to an 18-year-old Massachusetts high school student who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on May 31.
Marcelo Gomes da Silva, a junior at Milford Public High School in Massachusetts, was released from ICE custody on Thursday after Judge Jenny Beverly set his bond at $2,000.
“I’ll always remember this place,” Gomes da Silva told reporters following his release on Thursday. “I’ll always remember how it was.”
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said on June 3 that ICE agents had been targeting Gomes da Silva’s father but ended up detaining the student during a traffic stop, as he was driving his father’s vehicle at the time. The student’s father has not been arrested.
The student’s lawyer, Robin Nice, told reporters after Thursday’s court hearing that the arrest should never have occurred, calling it “a waste of our judicial process.”
“Marcelo never should have been arrested or detained, and it certainly did not make us safer,” she stated. “It’s not okay that students across the state are fearful of going to school or sports practice, and that parents have to question whether their children will come home at the end of the day.”
Earlier this week, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, “While ICE officers never intended to apprehend Gomes da Silva, he was found to be in the United States illegally and subject to removal proceedings, so officers made the arrest.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the DHS for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
