Robson Martins Da Silva is a Brazilian national living in Massachusetts illegally. In January, he pleaded guilty in Fall River District Court to two counts of assault and battery on a child under 14. He had also been arrested for possessing child sexual abuse material, for assault with a dangerous weapon, and for assaulting a family member.
He was still living in southeastern Massachusetts when ICE came for him.
Da Silva was one of 82 illegal immigrants arrested in a three-day ICE operation around New Bedford and Fall River in late September. Of those 82, ICE named seven and published their records.
Joao Manuel Matos Ferreira of Portugal was convicted twice of assault with a motor vehicle. He has also been arrested on two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and two counts of indecent exposure.
Raphael De Oliveira Batista of Brazil had already been deported once and came back. He was arrested for assaulting a family member, threatening to commit a crime, and strangulation.
Cristopher Paul Augui Cajas of Ecuador was convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon and of assault and battery. He has since been arrested for assault, indecent exposure, and leaving the scene of property damage.
Ronan Rodrigues Dos Santos of Brazil was arrested for assault with a dangerous weapon and for threatening to commit a crime.
According to ICE, several of the people it arrested had already been in local custody. Massachusetts jails released them instead of honoring ICE's requests to hold them.
That's Massachusetts policy, and it got stronger this summer. On August 5, Gov. Maura Healey signed the Protect Act and called it the strongest law in the country against ICE. It bars immigration arrests at courthouses, schools, hospitals, and other "sensitive locations" unless agents have a judge's warrant. It also bans the state from signing new agreements to help federal immigration enforcement. More provisions took effect November 3, the same day Healey was on the ballot.
Joseph Sher, acting director of ICE's Boston field office, called it "embarrassingly performative legislation."
"Time and time again, sanctuary politicians in Massachusetts have made the dumbfounding choice to prioritize dangerous criminal illegal aliens rather than their law-abiding American citizens," Sher said.
Healey's side calls these policies "trust" between immigrant communities and police. Da Silva's victims were under 14, and a strangulation suspect who'd already been deported came back. A state that releases men like these instead of handing them to ICE has decided whose trust counts more.
Some of the 82 are already back on the street. Federal judges in Massachusetts have granted bond to many of the people detained in the sweep, with bonds of $5,000 to $10,000. At least one of the seven men ICE named has been released.
Immigration lawyers say most of the people arrested had no serious record, so the sweep was overblown. Every person ICE arrested was in the country illegally. And among the seven names ICE released are a convicted child abuser, a man arrested for indecent assault on children, and a deported strangulation suspect who came back.
Massachusetts Democrats wrote a law to make ICE's job harder. ICE went into New Bedford and Fall River anyway and took those men into custody. Now some of them are getting out on bond.