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After ICE arrest, Milford protest over detained high school student [1]
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Date: 2025-06-01
The 18-year-old’s detention by federal immigration officers sparked a post-commencement protest Sunday, with more than 1,000 demonstrators at Milford Town Hall lining the sidewalk and waving signs condemning ICE and calling for Gomes’s release.
MILFORD — Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was expected to perform with the Milford High School band at the school’s commencement on Sunday. Instead, as his bandmates played for those walking across the stage, Gomes remained locked up by immigration officials after being detained Saturday while headed to volleyball practice.
Friends, school officials, advocates, and local politicians spoke out against the detainment of Gomes, a high school junior who has attended Milford Public Schools most of his childhood.
Gomes has since been taken to ICE’s field office in Burlington. The agency plans to transfer him to Plymouth, said Diego Low, director of Metrowest Worker Center, an immigration advocacy group based in Framingham.
It is not known what grounds prompted the teen’s detention but he is listed on an ICE website as being in custody. ICE officials have not released any information or responded to requests for comment.
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The teen’s arrest is the latest in a string of immigration operations around New England that have put some communities on high alert as President Trump has vowed to dramatically increase the number of arrests and deportations across the country.
Julianys Rentas Figueroa, Gomes’s girlfriend and a graduating senior, said she wrestled with sadness and anxiety as her classmates walked the commencement stage to cheers and applause.
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She said she is deeply worried about Gomes’s well-being in the detention facility, but was awed by the community’s support, and that it affirmed her belief in God.
“It’s incredible,” she said. “I didn’t know how many people knew of Marcelo.”
Gomes was born in Brazil but had attended Milford Public Schools since he was 6 years old, friends said.
Students protested outside of Town Hall a day after 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was detained by ICE on his way to volleyball practice in Milford, MA on June 1, 2025. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
When several players didn’t show up for practice early Saturday morning, boys volleyball coach Andrew Mainini said Saturday he assumed they had overslept. A half-hour later, Mainini said he received a text from one of the students saying their group had been stopped by immigration agents and that one of them had been detained.
On Sunday, Governor Maura Healey demanded answers and expressed outrage over the teen’s arrest, and the continued lack of information from immigration authorities before, and after, they conduct local enforcement operations.
“Yet again, local officials and law enforcement have been left in the dark with no heads up and no answers to their questions,” Healey’s statement said. “I’m demanding that ICE provide immediate information about why he was arrested, where he is, and how his due process is being protected.”
The statement added that President Trump’s increased immigration arrests continue to “create fear in our communities, and it’s making us all less safe.”
An uptick in immigration sweeps in recent weeks has alarmed local authorities and communities. Last week, immigration agents arrested an estimated 40 people on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. And on Friday, Plymouth town leaders called out federal immigration officials for failing to inform them before masked and armed agents conducted an early-morning raid in North Plymouth.
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On Monday, federal officials plan to release the results of “a month-long immigration enforcement surge” across Massachusetts, according to an announcement by US District Attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley.
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to temporarily halt a program that has allowed nearly half a million people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the country and remain for two years.
Graduates embrace as they protest outside of Town Hall a day after 18 year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was detained by ICE on his way to volleyball practice in Milford, MA on June 1, 2025 Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
The administration’s action revokes temporary legal status for people from those four countries who were granted temporary parole. They could now face deportation while the case plays out in the courts.
At the outset of Sunday’s commencement ceremony, Milford High School Principal Joshua Otlin addressed Gomes’s arrest, without identifying him by name.
“We cannot and will not pretend that all is well at Milford High School this morning,” Otlin said. “It is not.”
As Otlin stood before rows of red-robed graduating teenagers on a breezy Sunday morning, he said the school community was feeling “fear and anxiety, where there should be hope and comfort.”
“There is wrenching despair and righteous anger where there should be gratitude and joy,” he said.
Shortly before noon, demonstrators — from parents with young children to retired teachers — began to gather in front of Milford Town Hall. Many were Milford residents, outraged that a teenager who’d grown up in their town had been detained. Others were supporters and advocates from surrounding communities. Teachers, administrators, and athletic staff from Milford schools joined the rally.
Soon, rows of demonstrators stretched for a block on both sides of the street adjacent to Town Hall. Shortly before 1 p.m., the numbers swelled as students, some still donning their scarlet red graduation robes, descended upon Town Hall from commencement.
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“Bring Marcelo home!” they chanted, drawing honks of support from passing drivers.
Gabriel Carvalho, 21, said he met Gomes after Carvalho immigrated to Milford about four years ago.
Carvalho joined the Milford High orchestra, and Gomes was an ace drummer in the school band, Carvalho said. Despite Gomes being an underclassman, they swiftly became close friends.
“He was so funny; he was always going to try to make people laugh,” Carvalho said.
Gomes also played varsity volleyball, attended a local church, and had an interest in cars, Carvalho said.
Gomes had been in the United States since he was 6 years old and has two younger siblings who are US citizens, friends said. Carvalho never suspected Gomes or his family would be on ICE’s radar.
School administrators said Gomes was a well-known honors student, who not only played volleyball but also sometimes coached the girl’s team.
Throughout the rally, friends flocked to Gomes’s girlfriend, Rentas, showering her with hugs and words of comfort.
Family members of 18 year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva who was detained by ICE on his way to volleyball break down in tears during a protest held for Marcelo outside of Town Hall in Milford, MA on June 1, 2025. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
In an interview, Rentas said Gomes was undocumented and had confided his fears of what his immigration status could mean for his future. He did not expect that day to come so soon, Rentas said.
“He was a kid,” she said. “He was just trying to finish high school.”
Rentas said she spoke to Gomes by phone Saturday while he was in Burlington. He seemed frightened, she said. He told her he was the only 18-year-old in a room of older men, and the only one without a criminal record.
The ordeal also is taking a toll on Gomes’s family, Rentas said. “They’re strong, but you can only be so strong when you don’t know what’s happening with your son,” she said.
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State Senator Rebecca Rausch and US Representative Jake Auchincloss attended the rally, voicing sadness and outrage over Gomes’s detention.
From atop the steps at Town Hall, Rausch accused ICE of acting with violence, impunity, and disrespect for the law.
“Putting high school students in shackles does not make anyone safer,” Rausch said.
Low, with Metrowest Worker Center, said he has been in contact with the teen’s attorneys, who will try to prevent ICE from transferring him out of state to a jurisdiction where the judge is less likely to grant bond.
Yago Sampaio, classmate and childhood friend, drew cheers as he delivered a tribute to Gomes and described his detention as an injustice.
“He was truly the kindest soul I’ve ever met,” Sampaio said. “He does not deserve any of this.”
In an interview, Sampaio said he was shocked when he learned of Gomes’s detention. Beyond being personally devastating, it made him fearful for Milford as a whole, where 30 percent of residents are immigrants, according to US Census data.
“I was terrified for the future of my friends, for the future of this world,” Sampaio said.
This story has been updated to correct a description of the ICE field office in Burlington.
Dan Glaun can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow him @dglaun. Tonya Alanez can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow her @talanez.
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