Healey Asked Who ICE Took in New Bedford. The List Includes a Convicted Child Abuser

Last month, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey stood at a podium and demanded that ICE tell her exactly who it had arrested on the South Coast. "What I've demanded of ICE is, who did you take and why?" she said. "You know, the overwhelming majority of these folks are hardworking, tax-paying residents."

Now ICE has answered. Agents arrested 82 illegal aliens in a three-day operation across New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fall River the week of Sept. 21, and several of them had been let out of jail by sanctuary jurisdictions that refused to honor ICE detainers, the agency said in its release. The first man on the list was convicted of two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

ICE put the list in front of a national audience again on Sunday afternoon.

Who ICE took

ICE named seven of the 82, with the records it says each one carries:

Robson Martins Da Silva, from Brazil, convicted of two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. ICE says he has also been arrested for possession of child sexual abuse material, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault on a family or household member.

Joao Manuel Matos Ferreira, from Portugal, convicted of two counts of assault with a motor vehicle and arrested on two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and two counts of indecent exposure. ICE lists him as a "criminal alien," not an illegal one.

Raphael De Oliveira Batista, from Brazil, who had already been removed from the United States once. He was arrested for assault and battery on a family or household member, threatening to commit a crime, and strangulation or suffocation.

Cristopher Paul Augui Cajas, from Ecuador, convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery, and arrested on two more assault counts, indecent exposure, disorderly conduct and leaving the scene of property damage.

Ricardo Faustin, from Haiti, arrested on five counts of extortion by threat of injury, six counts of larceny over $1,200 by false pretense, and conspiracy.

Ronan Rodrigues Dos Santos, from Brazil, arrested for assault with a dangerous weapon, threatening to commit a crime, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. Marlon Alexis Portillo-Garcia, from Honduras, convicted of driving under the influence.

Two notes on the record. Arrests and pending charges are not convictions, and every one of these men is presumed innocent of anything he hasn't been convicted of. And ICE's Sunday post named six of the seven from its release, leaving out Ferreira and the child sexual abuse material arrest on Da Silva's record, though its headline still cites the charge.

Every illegal crossing starts with a crime

Sanctuary politicians like to call immigration violations "civil." Some are. But crossing the border without inspection is a federal crime under 8 U.S.C. § 1325, so for every illegal alien who came in that way, the crossing was the first crime. Coming back after being deported, as ICE says Batista did, is a federal felony under 8 U.S.C. § 1326, punishable by up to 20 years for some prior offenders.

Massachusetts made ICE come looking

The reason ICE has to run three-day sweeps through fishing towns is that Massachusetts won't hand these men over at the jailhouse door. In 2017, the state's highest court ruled in Lunn v. Commonwealth that Massachusetts officers have no authority under state law to hold someone on a federal civil immigration detainer, even for the two days ICE asks for. So when a Massachusetts jail is done with someone ICE has asked for, he can walk out the front door, and ICE has to find him again on the street.

This summer, Healey went further. On Aug. 5 she signed the PROTECT Act, which bars local police from holding anyone for ICE without a judicial order, bans new 287(g) partnerships with ICE, lets people sue ICE agents in state court, and on Nov. 3, Election Day, starts restricting ICE arrests in state courthouses. Her own office calls it "some of the strongest protections against ICE in the country" on the state's PROTECT Act page. Acting ICE Boston Field Office Director Joseph Sher had a different word for it.

"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 in the release. "While these politicians continue to waste valuable time, energy and resources passing embarrassingly performative legislation such as the Protect Act, ERO Boston will continue to proudly protect Massachusetts communities from these dangerous criminals."

What Massachusetts leaders said while it was happening

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, a former federal prosecutor, put out a statement on Sept. 22, a day into the operation. ICE, he said, "grabbed at least eight individuals who were going about their morning routines. There is no indication that any one of them had criminal records beyond minor motor vehicle violations." He said ICE "continues to overreach" and "must be overhauled."

Healey's office put out a written statement the same day: "ICE needs to provide information immediately. Who have they arrested and why?"

Sen. Ed Markey went straight to abolition. "Masked agents disappearing our neighbors and refusing to release any information stokes fear and threatens our communities," he posted on Sept. 23. "We must abolish ICE now."

And at the final governor's debate on Oct. 15, Healey said, "The problem is ICE. ICE is the public safety threat." Her campaign posted the line the same night. Her Republican challenger, Mike Minogue, said state and local officials should work with federal agents to target "the violent criminals and the drug dealers," and that "when we do arrest people, and we deport them, let's put their name and picture up and show people."

Four days after that debate, ICE did exactly what Minogue described. It put up names and pictures.

What ICE hasn't said

To be fair to the mayor, ICE has not released a breakdown of how many of the 82 had criminal convictions, how many had pending charges, and how many had no record beyond being here illegally. Mitchell was talking about eight people in his city on the first morning, and nothing ICE has published proves him wrong about those eight.

But the governor didn't ask about eight. She said "the overwhelming majority" of the people taken were hardworking residents, and she asked who they were. The first name ICE gave back is a man convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. Another had already been deported once. Another is accused of strangling a family member. And several of the 82, ICE says, had been released by sanctuary jails that ignored its detainers.

The bottom line

Massachusetts has spent nine years building walls between its jails and ICE, and Healey just added another one. ICE's answer was to go get them anyway, with help from the Coast Guard, and then publish the list. Healey asked, "Who did you take and why?" Now she knows.