On May 31, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, an 18-year-old rising senior at Milford High School, was unexpectedly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officials while en route to volleyball practice. The news of his detainment quickly spread throughout the Milford community and led to widespread condemnation from community members, local leaders and even Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey.
Gomes, who has lived in Milford, Mass. since he was 5 years old, is originally from Brazil but has long been considered a member of the small town’s community. He’s on his high school’s volleyball team and regularly plays music at a local church, and his friends said in interviews with The Huntington News that he had never had trouble with the law.
Gomes was held in an ICE detention center in Burlington for six days. Community members protested the day after he was arrested and petitions circulated arguing that detaining a well-established high school student was unnecessary…