A high school volleyball player who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on his way to a practice has been released on bond.
Marcelo Gomes da Silva, an 18-year-old, was in custody at a detention center in Burlington, Massachusetts after being stopped in a car with his friends on Saturday.
He, originally from Brazil, went to court for a hearing on Thursday and a judge decided he could leave if he paid a $2,000 bond.
Attorneys for the government did not make any arguments, according to WCVB.
Yet the teenager could still be deported, as those proceedings move forward in the federal court system while his attorneys seek his asylum.
Gomes da Silva explained that he was on his way to volleyball practice in Milford with friends when the police stopped them and asked for his license and registration.
The officer, the teen said, ‘gave no reason to stop me,’ until he informed Gomes da Silva that he was in the country illegally.
The news shocked the teenager, who said he came to the United States when he was just six years old and did not know he was living on a visitor visa and then a student visa that has since lapped.
Gomas da Silva then spent six days at the Burlington ICE facility, sleeping on a cement floor and sharing an open toilet with nearly 40 other adult men.
Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 18, spoke to reporters after he was released from ICE detention on Thursday
‘I haven’t showered in six days. I haven’t done anything. The only thing I could do is thank God every day, because that’s all I would do, I would pray there,’ the high schooler said, noting that he would also preach the Bible to the other migrants.
But even that proved to be difficult, as his lawyer says officers initially refused to provide him with a Bible – which Gomes da Silva said was outrageous given that he has recited the Pledge of Allegiance in school every day.
He was also not allowed to watch television or hear the news, as his friends and colleagues rallied for his freedom outside.
‘At the end of the day, this is not a good place to be,’ Gomes da Silva said of the detention center. ‘No one deserves to be held down there.’
‘Most people down there are all workers, they all got caught going to work,’ he claimed, noting that he served as a translator for many of his fellow detainees because he speaks fluent English, Spanish and Portuguese.
‘These people have families, man, like they have kids to go home to – and there’s genuine criminals out there that people aren’t giving attention to. They’re getting good people that don’t deserve to be there.’
The teen says he now wants to help those who are still at the facility, noting that his father – who is also facing deportation ‘always told me to be humble.’
First, though, Gomes da Silva said he is just excited to see his dog and his siblings again as he posted a selfie to Instagram writing: ‘Six days no shower. You all mean the world to me.
‘Jesus Christ #1,’ he added.
The teen says he now wants to help those who are still at the ICE facility
News of Gomas da Silva’s arrest earlier this week set off a frenzy within his community
News of Gomes da Silva’s arrest earlier this week set off a frenzy within his community, as community members argued that the high school athlete is innocent.
They described him to the Boston Globe as a well-known honors student, ace drummer and varsity volleyball player who sometimes coached the girls’ team.
‘He hasn’t [done] anything wrong. There’s not one bad bone in his body that has done anything evil,’ his friend Mary Buckley told WCVB.
‘Trump said he was going to get rid of immigrants – immigrants that were criminals. Marcelo is the opposite of criminal. He’s done nothing wrong. His family has done nothing wrong,’ she claimed.
ICE officials have since claimed that they were searching for his father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, who is wanted for driving over 100mph in a residential zone – but Gomes da Silva’s attorneys have called that into question.
‘It sounds very targeted, they knew what they were doing – it wasn’t like they were just looking for dad, he got confused, it sounds like they were doing some sort of rounds,’ attorney Robin Nice told NBC Boston.
‘And it also sounds like they followed him from his house to his friend’s house, where they blocked him in the driveway,’ Gomes da Silva’s other attorney Miriam Conrad added.
‘So presumably if they were watching the house, they would have seen him come out and they would have known he was an 18-year-old kid with braces on his teeth, not his father. So the whole thing is just very odd.’
Many community members questioned why ICE would detain a teenager
Members of the community gather for a rally in support of high school student Marcelo Gomes da Silva
Concerned by the reports of the teen’s arrest, Democratic Congressmen Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss said they returned to their home state ‘to try to understand what the hell is going on.
‘We support securing our border, we support following the law. But this administration is breaking the law,’ Moulton claimed. ‘This administration is not keeping us safe by putting 18-year-old honors students in prison.’
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey echoed that sentiment in a statement.
‘This has been such a traumatic time for this community and I hope that they find some solace in knowing that the rule of law and due process still prevail,’ she said.
‘Marcelo never should have been arrested or detained, and it certainly did not make us safer,’ she continued.
‘It’s not OK 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.
‘In Massachusetts, we are going to keep speaking out for what’s right and supporting one another in our communities,’ the governor vowed.
Meanwhile, Gomes da Silva has filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court in Boston arguing that the federal government violated his due process rights by arresting him without cause or explanation.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.
