The Boston Globe and Mass Live reported Sunday that a 13-year-old was "arrested" by U.S. Customs and Enforcement agents in Everett, Massachusetts, and is now 500 miles away from his mother and family in a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
According to the boy's lawyer, Andrew Lattarulo, there was an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department, and the boy's mother was called to come and pick him up. However, when she went to the police department, after waiting, she was told that ICE had taken him, Josiele Berto told the Boston Globe in an interview.
"The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States," the report said, citing the family's lawyer.
Courts have now gotten involved, with U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Sterns ruling that the government must "justify" the arrest of the boy by Tuesday, Oct. 14. "Otherwise, he must receive a bond hearing no later than Oct. 17," the court documents say.
The judge mentioned the teen's age in the ruling, the report said. He was “in the company of unrelated adult detainees" when he was taken.
The family's lawyer said, “I’ve never done a bond or a habeas for a kid this young, ever. This is the youngest."
The 13-year-old has called his mother sobbing from the Virginia detention, she said. He has told her that he's sleeping on concrete, has an aluminum sheet for a blanket and "had little to eat." She is also concerned about his health and safety because he recently broke his foot while riding his bike.
The family's lawyer said that they still aren't clear on why the police took the minor to begin with, and then why ICE nabbed the child while his mother waited to pick him up.
“It doesn’t make sense for one of my clients, waiting almost two hours for her kid, and only to find out later that ICE agents took him,” Lattarulo said. “They told her she could pick him up, and then they wouldn’t let her see the kid.”
The attorney explained that frequently, when ICE takes people, they're immediately shipped out to another state, because Massachusetts is "perceived to be more sympathetic." So, now, he must find a lawyer licensed in Virginia to help with the case.
“I need help to bring my son home. He’s only 13 years old and was taken by ICE,” the boy's mother wrote. “We’re suffering a lot with this situation. God bless anyone who’s able to help.”
“The way [ICE] is treating people, especially a child, is very cruel,” she added.
The report explained that this is the latest in a "string" of arrests of teenagers in the area.
Gustavo Henrique Reis Oliveira, a 16-year-old, was "arrested" by ICE in Milford, Massachusetts, at the beginning of September, but was later released. Then, a few weeks later, the report said that João Marciano do Carmo, a 19-year-old, was "arrested" on his way to work. His family didn't know where he was for five days. He's currently in a Mississippi facility. Neither had a criminal record, the report said.
Advocates and lawyers say that there has been an increase in children and teenagers being taken by ICE.
During President Donald Trump's first term, it was found that the government was taking children from their parents and separating them into child-specific detention facilities, as the American Immigration Council wrote about in 2017. The Globe said that the government has reopened "family detention centers that had been shuttered for years."
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told MassLive in a previous case involving the 16-year-old that the ICE agents did not know that a teenager was a minor and that he was detained “to determine his identity and if he was a potential safety threat.”
“ICE does NOT target juveniles or children,” DHS Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to MassLive. “At the time of the detainment, ICE had no knowledge of the individual’s age.”