ICE claimed a 13-year-old boy with a gun was detained. Cops now say there was no firearm | EUROtoday

A 13-year-old Massachusetts boy was detained by federal immigration brokers, claiming he was armed with a gun — however native officers later revealed the teenager by no means had a firearm.

The case has been met on-line with a mix of shock and confusion, with federal officers providing a special set of particulars from the press and metropolis officers.

The seventh grader from Everett, Massachusetts, who has not been publicly named, was arrested final Thursday after native police acquired a tip that he had made a “violent threat” in opposition to one other boy inside a college, town’s mayor stated. Officers then arrested and booked the teenager on the police station, from the place Immigration and Customs Enforcement took him into custody.

The boy was initially held at a close-by ICE facility earlier than being transported to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Virginia, 500 miles from his hometown, the Boston Globe reported on Sunday.

The boy and his household are Brazilian nationals and have a pending asylum case, his immigration lawyer informed the paper.

The story was met with outrage on social media, and bought the eye of the Department of Homeland Security, which replied to 1 tweet with the “facts.”

“Here are the facts: he posed a public safety threat with an extensive rap sheet including violent assault with a dangerous weapon, battery, breaking and entering, destruction of property,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, wrote on Monday.

“He was in possession of a firearm and 5-7 inch knife when arrested,” she stated.

The DHS doubled down on its claims the next day, repeating that the teenager was carrying a gun and a knife and had an “extensive” rap sheet. “Shameful @BostonGlobe—lying about public safety threats,” learn the submit from the official division account.

At a press convention in a while Tuesday, nonetheless, Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria contradicted federal officers’ statements, saying officers recovered a knife, however no gun.

The Independent has reached out to DHS on whether or not it stands by its unique statements and the Everett Police Department and the lawyer concerning the teen’s alleged rap sheet.

Police did not contact ICE concerning the arrest, the mayor stated: “Everett Police does not make arrests based on immigration status.”

Once somebody is taken into ICE custody, each the Everett police and town have “no authority or control over what happens next,” DeMaria stated.

Local legislation enforcement informed the teenager’s mom, Josiele Berto, she might choose up her son on the station. An hour and a half later, she was informed he was taken to an ICE facility. “My world collapsed,” Berto informed the Globe in Portuguese.

A lawyer for the teenager filed an emergency habeas corpus petition on Friday. The district choose famous the teenager was “presumably in the company of unrelated adult detainees” and ordered the federal government to “show cause…for grounds justifying the detention of a juvenile” by Tuesday, in any other case the boy have to be given a bond listening to by Friday, court docket paperwork present.

However, the choose on the time was underneath the impression that the teenager was nonetheless being held on the Massachusetts ICE facility. The authorities later defined that the petition was filed whereas the boy was en path to Virginia, so this court docket “lacks jurisdiction,” the choose wrote. The case was transferred to the right district on Wednesday.