A 14-year-old high school freshman detained by federal immigration agents in a parking lot in Marlborough has been returned to her family after spending a day at a juvenile facility in New York.
However, the government has begun deportation proceedings against the Brighton High School student, identified as B.E.S. in federal court records. That’s despite a federal lawyer’s statement Wednesday that that the government was not seeking to deport her.
B.E.S. is originally from Brazil, and was detained by Homeland Security Investigations officers on Tuesday.
“She’s a very strong kid. She seemed very happy to be with her family,” said her attorney, Andrew Lattarulo. ”Everything went smoothly on the government’s end, on our end. So it was a very smooth transition. And now she’s with her family in Weymouth.”
Lattarulo said B.E.S was on her way to a bakery when she and friends were pulled over on Tuesday afternoon in Marlborough, where she lives with two US citizen brothers.
The teen was transported to the Marlborough Police Department, then brought to the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston — which houses several federal offices, including Boston Immigration Court and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. She was put in a van at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday and transferred overnight to a juvenile facility under the purview of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in New York. Her mother is deceased, and her father is not a part of her life.
Government attorney Rayford Farquhar told federal Judge Leo Sorokin on Wednesday that B.E.S. was detained because she is a child and didn’t have her guardians with her. Then he also mentioned the individuals with her didn’t have legal status when pressed by Sorokin.
Department of Homeland Security Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis claimed ICE “rescued her from suspected gang members.” She said the two other people in the car were men in their 20s who have criminal records, and weren’t her guardians.
Bis said the men, who are 28 and 25, were suspected gang members, and that one illegally entered the U.S. and was released into the country under Biden’s “open-border policies.” Bis said the other man overstayed a visa. She said their vehicle was connected to an attempted home invasion earlier this month.
Lattarulo said B.E.S. told him she wasn’t placed in handcuffs, but wasn’t told why they were taking her.
”She wasn’t even told that they were trying to help her, which is, I know, the narrative that the government’s trying to spin right now,” he said. He said that the stated reason for her detention has changed many times.
Lattarulo said of the two men in the car that one had a motor vehicle offense that was dismissed, and the other had no charges. “No gang or violent charges, and the other one had no charges,” he said. “So I don’t see how they can associate them with gang membership.”
B.E.S. came to the United States on a visitor visa in 2019. She is currently seeking a special immigrant juvenile visa.
Sorokin ordered the teenager be returned to Massachusetts as long as an aunt filed an affidavit saying she’s seeking temporary guardianship of the girl, is a U.S. citizen and that B.E.S. can reside with her and her green card–holding uncle.
Farquhar said that B.E.S. was not being detained to be removed from the country.
B.E.S. was brought to meet her aunt at the JFK Federal Building early Thursday afternoon. Then, Lattarulo said, the teen was handed a notice to appear, which begins the deportation process.
“I just find it strange that they take a child, they detain her 10 hours, they then drive seven hours to New York,” he said. “On her trip back, her reward is, well, here’s a notice to appear, you can appear in removal proceedings because we’re trying to deport you. So I don’t think this was ever about helping her.“
Lattarullo said he believes one possibility is that agents ”were trying to use her as bait to try to get her father, who’s MIA. “
The habeas case is continuing. Sorokin has asked the government to provide more information about why they detained B.E.S. within a couple weeks.
