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The New Republic @newrepublic 1h
State of the Union Guest Had to Leave Early After DHS Threatened Him

Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 19, was enjoying his time in the visitors’ gallery in the House of Representatives, watching Donald Trump’s speech. But when Trump honored the gold medal–winning U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team, Moulton’s chief of staff, Neesha Suarez, escorted Gomes out of the chamber. She had seen a post from the DHS and worried about Gomes’s safety in a room with a heavy law enforcement presence.

Homeland Security @DHSgov
@RepMoulton plans to bring illegal alien Marcelo Gomes DaSilva.

Gomes DaSilva is an illegal alien who has no right to be in our nation. We are committed to enforcing the law and fighting for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens like him.

The teen legally came to the U.S. from Brazil when he was 6 with his parents, but his visa later expired. ICE said they were looking for his father, claiming that he had a history of speeding in residential areas, including driving over 100 miles per hour. The Boston Globe only found that Gomes’s father ran a stop sign in 2023.

Gomes was released from ICE detention in Burlington, Vermont, a week after his arrest, still wearing his volleyball shorts and Crocs, and was greeted by Moulton and Representative Jake Auchincloss. He then applied for asylum. Suarez had driven Gomes to Washington and knew that he didn’t have his phone, so she took him to Moulton’s office to watch the rest of the speech. He checked social media, texted his friends, and called his mother.

“I can’t believe they still want to chase after me,” Gomes, dressed in a gray suit, told the Globe. “I’m just disappointed in the ignorance. It’s really inhumane, and there’s a lack of empathy.”

“We’re obviously concerned about it, but sometimes in America, you have to do brave things,” Moulton said, regarding the DHS’s post. “Sometimes when you really believe in freedom, you actually have to risk it.… Sometimes you have to fight hardest for your country when your country lets you down.”

https://newrepublic.com/post/207045/state-union-guest-leave-early-department-homeland-security-threat