In the 11 months since President Donald Trump was elected, thousands of immigrants have been detained in Massachusetts as part of his mass deportation agenda.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to target people who have committed serious crimes like sexual assault and homicide. But recent national government data shows that more than 70% of detentions from January to October were immigrants with no criminal record.
“In record-time we have secured the border, taken the fight to cartels, and arrested thousands upon thousands of criminal illegal alien,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “Though 2025 was historic, we won’t rest until the job is done.”
In Massachusetts, federal law enforcement detained nearly 3,000 individuals in Operation Patriot and Patriot 2.0 in May and September. That figure doesn’t count the many people detained at traffic stops, in businesses and outside of their homes.
GBH News chronicled the cases of immigrants whose detentions went viral and made national news — and those that very few readers knew anything about. Here is an update on four of those cases.
Fabian Schmidt is rebuilding his life after being detained at the airport
Fabian Schmidt, a mid-30s German national, had spent nearly 18 years in the U.S. and had a green card in good standing. Despite that, he was denied entry back into the U.S. after visiting family in Europe, and spent about four days at Logan Airport, where he says he endured violent interrogation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.
“I asked them, ‘Is this the longest anybody’s ever been here?’” he said in an interview. “Because I’m starting to feel like Tom Hanks in ‘[The] Terminal,’ and they would tell me ‘three days, that’s the max.”’
Schmidt says he was denied the ability to call a lawyer, family or the German embassy. He said he was stripped, forced into a shower and faced more questioning before he collapsed.
He was taken to Mass General Hospital with a flu and high fever, and was eventually taken back to the airport. Then, he was sent to the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island.
Customs and Border Protection has denied the claims about Schmidt’s interactions at Logan Airport, and pointed to Schmidt’s history, which included a drug misdemeanor in California in 2016, which was later dismissed, and a DUI the same year that resulted in fines and probation. After nearly two months, they eventually released Schmidt in May, and his case was dropped.
Since then, Schmidt has gotten married and resumed working. He lives in New Hampshire. But he says he has stomach ulcers as a result of the distress, and still feels traumatized by the entire experience.
“Honestly, I don’t think that’s gonna fade for quite a while. I think about it every day. Every day, I think about my own pain — It still makes an impact on me for sure,” he said in a Zoom interview.
Schmidt still hopes to become an American, like many of his family members already have.
“I love this country so much. My daughter, my wife, my whole life is here,” he said. “So I’m trying to become an American as soon as possible. And if there was some kind of magic trick to make that happen now, I would totally sign my paperwork.”
His attorney, David Keller, is waiting for the right time to file naturalization paperwork, citing recent confusion around changes in the process.
Schmidt has been back to Logan Airport since his release. The first time, he brought his lawyer with him, just in case.
“I said, ‘I need to face this fear.’ I was so nervous,” he said of picking up his father at Terminal E. Since then, Schmidt has flown domestically once. He said he won’t let “one bad experience ruin all that,” and that he must still go to the airport to pick up his daughter and his extended family members.
He’s still considering pursuing litigation after what he experienced, but for now, he has a warning for other immigrants.
“You could be picked up for no reason and put in detention,” he said. “I mean, if you’re tan and you look somewhat Hispanic and you’re working in drywall and you’re actually an American citizen, bring your passport to work. That’s where I’m standing with that.”
Marcelo Gomes da Silva is trying to focus on school, but will 'never lose the thoughts’ of detention
Marcelo Gomes da Silva was driving to volleyball practice this summer when he was pulled over by ICE agents. Officers later claimed they were searching for his father, but they instead detained the then-18-year-old Milford High School junior since he didn’t have papers. Gomes da Silva, originally from Brazil, spent six days in ICE’s Burlington field office before an immigration judge ordered his release.
He described staying in the same room as 35 other men, having no hygiene supplies and sleeping on concrete. Gomes da Silva said an ICE officer told him he had overstayed his visa — back when he was in elementary school.
His release was difficult at first.
“In the beginning it was obviously hard because my parents were super nervous. They were really scared,” Gomes da Silva said in a Zoom interview. “But after time it slowly started getting better because we were able to do things that have to do with our documentation, like apply for asylum and things like that. So slowly things have been getting better.”
Now, Gomes da Silva is waiting for volleyball season to start, and just celebrated his birthday with friends. He said he doesn’t fully feel like he’s a teenager again. “Those thoughts of the detention center will never go away. Like I’ll never lose the thoughts of how it was there and like it’ll always be with me,” he said.
Gomes da Silva is still advocating for other detained immigrants, some of which have since been released. “I’ll do what I can,” he said. “I wanna go to college for political science and hopefully go to law school. I’m really interested in being a politician and I feel like if I educate myself more and more, I will be able to help others around me.” He’s looking at Clark, Harvard and Brown universities, Providence College, and Holy Cross.
Gomes da Silva doesn’t have another court hearing related to his deportation case until 2028. Right now, he’s focusing on his senior year.
Rümeysa Öztürk’s cases are ongoing
The earliest wave of detentions under the Trump administration involved students who had expressed opinions countering Israel’s invasion of Gaza. In a chilling video taken by a neighbor, masked agents detained Rümeysa Öztürk outside her home in Somerville last spring. The Ph.D. candidate at Tufts University, originally from Turkey, was left without legal access for more than 24 hours as she was sent from Massachusetts to Vermont, and eventually Louisiana.
In her court filings, Öztürk retold how the panic aggravated her asthma, and how she wasn’t sure who the masked individuals who put her in a van were until many hours later. In Louisiana, she was held for 45 days before her court-ordered release.
Her attorneys contend that she was targeted for writing an opinion piece in the Tufts student newspaper calling on the school’s administration to stop funding companies with ties to Israel’s efforts in the war in Gaza.
A federal judge recently ordered the government to reinstate Öztürk’s student record so she can be allowed to work on child development research for school. She is currently working on her dissertation. “Really, it’s an example of how she is really dedicated to her Ph.D. related to child study and human development,” said her attorney Mahsa Khanbabai on Boston Public Radio recently.
During federal court hearings, it was discovered that the State Department found no evidence linking Öztürk to Hamas or terrorism, a claim the government was initially leaning on. There was no evidence to show she violated any laws that would warrant terminating her visa.
“They used a rarely used and seen authority granted to the U.S. secretary of state to revoke a person’s visa in their discretion. So essentially it means Secretary Rubio can say, 'I don’t like that person for whatever reason. And I’m going to revoke their visa,'” said Khanbabai during the show. “So that’s the basis of her visa, of her deportation proceedings.” Her removal and habeas cases are ongoing.
Lucas Dos Santos Amaral leans on faith and family after case of mistaken identity
There have also been cases of mistaken identity where undocumented individuals are collateral damage. Lucas Dos Santos Amaral, then 29, was driving to his painting job and pulled over during the first days of the Trump administration. ICE agents were looking for someone else, but held him after discovering he had an expired visa.
Dos Santos Amaral, originally from Brazil, had no criminal record, and performs music during church services with his wife, Suyanne. They have a daughter, and Suyanne was pregnant at the time of her husband’s detention.
He spent three weeks at Plymouth’s ICE detention center and then was transferred to two Texas facilities. A judge ordered him released on $8,000 bond; then, ICE left him stranded in Texas without any identification, and friends had to fly down to bring him documents from Massachusetts.
“My life has never been the same — those were frightening and traumatic days, hope was scarce, but my faith in God never wavered,” Dos Santos Amaral said in a message.
He said there is nothing better than being back with his family. Since his detention, his son Theo was born. He’s back to singing gospel at New England churches, and working with a valid work permit. He doesn’t have another court hearing until winter 2027.
“We are ending another year united and stronger, because I believe that this battle I faced will serve the benefit of all of us immigrants,” he said. “Our Christmas will have a taste of victory and gratitude.”
