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The federal government is arguing in favor of keeping a Brazilian father and son detained after they were arrested while fishing off Menemsha on Martha’s Vineyard.
On Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard initially approached Rogerio da Silva Lima and his 15-year-old son Nycolas de Al Varenga Lima for a routine safety check. They returned to fishing, but then the Coast Guard returned, asked for documentation and detained the two, as first reported by the Vineyard Gazette.
“Indiscriminate arrests and detention leave us all worse off — parents separated from children or children detained. Communities are left shattered,” said their attorney Amelia Ritenour. “The community in Martha’s Vineyard has banded together to assist this family because they see it clearly for what it is: a gross violation of due process.”
The father and son were later transferred from the military branch’s custody to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and detained at the Burlington ICE processing center.
Ritenour filed a lawsuit on behalf of both da Silva Lima and de Al Varenga Lima on Monday night to keep them from being transferred out of Massachusetts, arguing that the detentions are unlawful and a violation of their constitutional rights. A federal judge ordered the government keep them in Massachusetts for 72 hours while a official judge was assigned to their cases.
In a Thursday filing to Judge Indira Talwani, who is the judge in the father’s case, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Vincent Engingro III argued that the petition for da Silva Lima release should be denied because he has a pending order of removal.
Engingro III argued that, pending removal, they can be detained for at least six months and cited a 2001 Supreme Court case.
Engingro III on Thursday and ICE in a separate statement didn’t note any criminal charges or convictions for the two when asked by GBH News, only the civil order of removal.
Da Silva Lima is originally from Brazil. He entered the United States in 2021, was admitted by an immigration officer and claimed asylum. The government says his asylum application was denied, and his appeal dismissed in 2024.
Their attorney Ritenour told GBH News on Thursday that the two had been transferred to an unknown location.
State Sen. Julian Cyr, who represents Martha’s Vineyard, says the father and son had never been fishing before, and that the Coast Guard’s involvement is “effectively playing the role of immigration enforcement on the water.”
“The Coast Guard did a routine safety check on the vessel and then returned not once but twice, which is highly unusual,” he told GBH News.
“The Coast Guard’s primary mission is to protect people on the waters. It really appears that this is straying from that core mission, and it’s just yet another example of the capricious and racially charged immigration practices that we’re seeing this federal administration carry out,” Cyr said.
The state lawmaker said Al Varenga Lima is a high school student on Martha’s Vineyard and that the community is calling for his and his father’s releases.
The island chapter of Luce Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts has an ongoing GoFundMe fundraiser for legal aid for Al Varenga Lima and Da Silva Lima. So far, over $17,000 has been raised. The organizers didn’t return request for comment, but updated the page Wednesday, saying that the two “remaining together is the priority of the family.”
An unknown Coast Guard spokesperson told GBH News in an email that the vessel “appeared to be in distress.”
“When our small boat made contact with the vessel it was clear that they were not in distress so it became a routine boarding where we check for safety equipment/registration etc,” the statement read.
The spokesperson did not address questions about why it reached out to ICE, and how often this occurs.
