By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) -A Massachusetts high school student who was arrested during the weekend by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on his way to volleyball practice was ordered released on a $2,000 bond on Thursday.
A lawyer for Marcelo Gomes Da Silva said the decision by Immigration Judge Jenny Beverly in Chelmsford cleared the way for the 18-year-old to return home to his family in the Boston suburb of Milford and be released from immigration custody following his Saturday arrest during a traffic stop.
The detention of the Brazilian, who arrived in the United States when he was 5 on a now-lapsed visa, prompted protests in Massachusetts as the incident became a flashpoint in Republican President Donald Trump’s efforts to ramp up immigration arrests and deportations.
Classmates gathered outside the immigration court celebrated after word of the judge’s decision reached them.
“We are thrilled that Marcelo soon will be back home with his family and community,” Miriam Conrad, one of his lawyers, said in an email. “But this shows how pointless and cruel the arrest was in the first place.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Milford High School junior had been driving his father’s vehicle when he was arrested by ICE following a traffic stop, the agency’s acting director, Todd Lyons, told reporters on Monday.
ICE officials said Gomes was not the target of the investigation that led to his arrest, and that authorities instead were seeking his father, who has not been arrested.
“He’s in this country illegally, and we’re not going to walk away from anybody,” Lyons told reporters.
In response to a lawsuit alleging he was unlawfully detained, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole issued an order barring immigration authorities from transferring Gomes out of Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice.
The lawsuit said that Gomes entered the United States on a student visa in 2012. While his visa status has lapsed, the lawsuit said he intends to apply for asylum.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Diane Craft)
