Burlington – A Milford high school student was released on bond June 5 after being held at an ICE detention center for six days.
Marcelo Gomes da Silva was held at a Burlington facility since he was detained for his undocumented status following a traffic stop when he was on his way to volleyball practice.
After his release, Gomes da Silva and U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss held a press conference for the community.
“That place? It’s not good. It’s not good. Ever since I got here, they had me in handcuffs,” Gomes da Silva said.
“I haven’t showered in six days,” Gomes da Silva said. “Sometimes our lunch and dinner would be crackers, and I would share with the people there because they are all 35-year-old men and they eat more than me.”
He said that because he is trilingual in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, he would often have to translate paperwork for people within the facility.
“No one deserves to be down there,” Gomes da Silva said. “They are getting good people who don’t deserve to be here.”
“The only thing I could do is thank God every day. Because that’s all I would do. I would pray there,” he added.
Moulton and Auchincloss, who flew up from Washington, attended the press conference “to try and understand what the hell is going on,” Moulton said.
Both representatives condemned the arrest of Gomes da Silva. They also toured the facility where he was held.
“We support following the law, but this administration is breaking the law. This administration is not keeping us safe by putting 18-year-old honors students in prison,” Moulton said. “What we see here today is not American. It doesn’t represent our values.
“We very well may find that this administration is just outright breaking the law,” he added.
Auchincloss said, “This is not what law and order looks like. My constituents in Milford support secure borders, they support their local police department, they support deporting individuals who are a threat to public safety.”
He added his constituents do not support “harassing a high school student carpooling to his volleyball practice, who’s an honor student, who is a member of his high school band. That does not make the community safer.”
Auchincloss said the federal administration “has its public safety priorities backwards.”
In an interview with the Item, Moulton said, regarding the facility that he toured, “Clearly this facility is meant as a temporary processing facility, not as a place where anyone should stay more than a few hours. The idea that he was held there for the six days, without a shower, is inhumane by any standard of the modern world.”
Moulton said that Gomes da Silva “showed what an impressive student he is, what an impressive young man he is, and what a great American he is.”
“The fact that he’s being hounded because he didn’t know that he overstayed his Visa when he was 7 years old is ridiculous,” Moulton said.
