A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and transported to a juvenile detention center over 500 miles from his family.
“My world collapsed,” Josiele Berto, the boy’s mother, told The Boston Globe, explaining that she was called to the Everett Police Department in Massachusetts after her son was arrested following an interaction with the police on Thursday. After waiting for more than an hour, she was informed that her son had been taken into ICE custody, she told The Globe.
Berto told the outlet that her son was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington, MA, where he spent the night before being transported on Friday morning to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, VA.
In an email to the boy’s lawyer, Andrew Lattarulo, and reviewed by MassLive, the U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed that the teenager was transferred at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. Lattarulo told the outlet that the boy is still in custody.
In response to coverage by local and national outlets of the 13-year-old boy’s arrest, Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, posted on X: “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. He was in possession of a firearm and 5-7 inch knife when arrested.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Everett Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security for confirmation on McLaughlin’s claims, but did not receive an immediate response.
On the day of the teenager’s transfer, District Judge Richard G. Stearns ordered ICE to show cause for the boy’s detention by Tuesday, Oct. 14, or he must be granted a bond hearing no later than Friday, Oct. 17, before an Immigration Judge, according to court documents. Stearns also noted that the teenage detainee was “presumably in the company of unrelated adult detainees.”
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. He was in possession of a firearm and 5-7 inch knife when arrested. https://t.co/RSkgKUnGTS
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) October 13, 2025
“I’ve never done a bond or a habeas for a kid this young, ever. This is the youngest,” Lattarulo told The Globe.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Lattarulo for comment.
The boy’s arrest comes at a time when ICE launched “Operation Patriot 2.0″ in Massachusetts on Sept. 6, aimed at “targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens living in the state.” The immigration crackdown is a continuation of a federal enforcement operation carried out by ICE in May.
In September, a 16-year-old from Brazil was briefly detained by ICE agents in Milford, MA. “ICE does NOT target juveniles or children,” Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to MassLive after the arrest. “At the time of the detainment, ICE had no knowledge of the individual’s age,” she added.
Another high school student, Marcelo Gomes da Silva, was detained by ICE in May and later released on bond. “I would have to watch people cry, people with kids,” da Silva, who arrived in the U.S. at age 7, told the press after his release. The 18-year-old spent six days at the Burlington detention facility, where the 13-year-old boy from Everett spent a night on Thursday.
The 13-year-old’s mother told The Globe that her son called crying from and said to her that he’s sleeping on concrete with an aluminum sheet as a blanket in the Virginia facility.
The Daily Beast reached out to ICE for comment, but received no immediate response.
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