MILFORD, Mass. (WBZ) – An 18-year-old high school student, who is undocumented but has lived in Massachusetts since he was 5, was detained by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the way to volleyball practice.

Four Milford High School students were on their way to volleyball practice Saturday morning when three unmarked vehicles carrying ICE agents pulled up behind them. At least two of the students in the car were undocumented, including the driver, 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes.

The other undocumented student in the car at the time spoke out about the incident. He asked to remain anonymous. He says that they weren’t doing anything wrong to warrant being pulled over.

“An ICE officer stepped out of his vehicle, knocked on the window and asked what his documentation was,” the student said.

The agents interrogated the car full of students about their documentation before taking Gomes, who is a high school junior, into custody. The other undocumented student says he was not taken into custody by ICE because he is underage.

“That’s kind of when emotion hit, and I started crying… Tears just started coming down my eyes,” the student said.

The student says he is now afraid all his hard work in school and being a good member of the community is in jeopardy.

“I always knew this to be a system that kicks out undocumented people for committing crimes, and now, it’s a system that will just kick you out based on your status,” he said.

Milford Police say they were not informed ICE would by carrying out this operation, and Milford Public Schools Superintendent Kevin McIntyre said the following in a statement:

“The Milford Public Schools play no part in immigration enforcement and support all of our students and families, including those who are immigrants to the United States. They are members of the community, students in our classrooms, athletes that compete representing Milford, musicians, artists, friends, and neighbors.”

Family members say Gomes has lived in the Milford area since he was 5 years old.

“It’s kind of heartbreaking, and Marcelo is such a kind person. He’s the last person that this should be happening to. His siblings are so young, and they’re asking questions like whether they’re ever going to see him again,” said Gomes’ cousin, Ana Julia Araujo.

Araujo says Gomes is currently being held at an ICE detention center in Burlington.

Hundreds rallied Sunday in support of Gomes, including members of Milford High School’s Class of 2025, who marched down the street in their caps and gowns after graduation. Gomes is a member of the school band and was set to play drums at the ceremony.

“Marcelo was a good kid. He was excited for his future. He did absolutely nothing wrong. He was innocently going to a practice, and he was targeted,” said Gomes’ girlfriend, Julianys Rentas.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, also spoke out against Gomes’ detention.

“I’m demanding that ICE provide immediate information about why he [Gomes] was arrested, where he is and how his due process is being protected. My heart goes out to the Milford community on what was supposed to be a celebratory graduation day. The Trump Administration continues to create fear in our communities, and it’s making us all less safe,” said Healey in a statement.

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Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey took to social media Sunday evening to demand answers after ICE agents arrested a high school student heading to volleyball practice over the weekend.

The student, 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes, is a junior at Milford High School in Milford, Massachusetts. 

In her post, Healey says she is “disturbed and outraged” and that she wants answers immediately explaining why the student was taken into immigration enforcement’s custody.

“I’m demanding that ICE provide immediate information about why he was arrested, where he is and how his due process is being protected,” she s.

BLUE STATE GOVERNOR SOUNDS OFF ABOUT ‘DISTURBING’ ICE OPERATIONS ON AFFLUENT LIBERAL ISLANDS

People walked to Milford High School’s graduation ceremony on June 1, 2025. Several ICE arrests were made in Milford on Saturday, including a Milford High student who was detained on his way to volleyball practice.  (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

In the post she blames the Trump admin for what she describes as an attempt to create fear.

“The Trump Administration continues to create fear in our communities, and it’s making us all less safe,” her post states.

In her statement, Healey claims that the student was detained on Saturday without any warning or subsequent explanation provided to state officials.

“Yet again, local officials and law enforcement have been left in the dark with no heads up and no answers to their questions,” she said.

The community gathered to protest outside of Milford on Sunday. Hundreds demanded Gomes be set free and that ICE stop harassing members of their community.

Milford High School graduates protest outside of Milford Town Hall a day after 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva was detained by ICE on his way to volleyball practice.  (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

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U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Democrat who represents Milford in Congress, attended the protest and made note on X that Gomes was “enrolled in honors classes, a coaching assistant for girls volleyball [and] player for boys volleyball, and a member of the school band.” 

“This administration has its public safety priorities backwards. It pardons cop-beaters from Jan. 6 but detains high-school volleyball players. It makes gun-purchaser background checks harder while pushing for tax breaks to buy silencers for pistols. This reckless behavior does not make the residents of Milford safer, and I stand with the community in support of law [and] order,” he wrote.

U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Democrat who represents Milford in Congress, attended the protest and made note on X that Gomes was “enrolled in honors classes, a coaching assistant for girls volleyball [and] player for boys volleyball, and a member of the school band.”  ( Rep. Jake Auchincloss on X)

Milford School District Superintendent Kevin McIntyre says that Gomes’ detention is one of many apprehensions to take place in the southern Massachusetts community.

McIntyre says the district cannot take any role in immigration enforcement, but they will “support all of our students and families, including those who are immigrants to the United States.”

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“They are members of the community, students in our classrooms, athletes that compete representing Milford, musicians, artists, friends, and neighbors. We will do everything in our power to support our students and families during these difficult times,” he said in his statement.

Sunday morning was Milford High School’s graduation and Healey says a day of celebration has now been tarnished.

“My heart goes out to the Milford community on what was supposed to be a celebratory graduation day,” she said.

JEFFERSON CITY — A handful of individuals put on impressive performances throughout the weekend. Here are the most notable athletes from the area.

(UW ATHLETICS) – COLLEGE STATION, Texas –The Wisconsin women’s track and field duo of Emma Kelley and Taylor Kesner punched their tickets for the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday at the NCAA West First Round.

Kelley ran a personal-best time and the No. 3 mark in school history to advance in the 800 meters while Kesner threw the No. 2 mark in program history in the discus. 

EMMA TO EUGENE
A four-time champion in the 800 meters at the Division III level at WashU, Kelley advanced to her first NCAA championship at the Division I level thanks to a historic performance on Saturday. 

Kelley finished fourth in the third section of the 800 in 2 minutes, 1.87 seconds, a personal-best mark and the No. 3 time in school history, to advance to the NCAA outdoor championships. Her time was the sixth-fastest time during the evening and was almost a second faster than her previous-best mark.

Only UW legends Suzy Favor and Amy Wickus have run faster 800 meter-times in program history than Kelley. 

Kelly will compete in the semifinals of the 800 meters on Thursday, June 12 at 7:58 p.m. CT while the final will take place on Saturday, June 14 at 9:14 p.m. CT. 

KESNER CONTINUES EXCELLENCE
Taylor Kesner’s stellar showings continued on Saturday afternoon, as the Highland, Illinois, native qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in a second event—earning a mark of 189 feet, 8 inches (57.83m).

She moved to No. 2 all-time in school history in the process, in addition to becoming the only athlete this season to advance to the NCAA Championships in both the discus and javelin. In Texas, Kesner wrapped up her first-ever regional appearance with a pair of personal bests.

Kesner will throw the javelin on Thursday, June 12 at 7:15 p.m. CT and the discus at 7:40 p.m. CT on Saturday, June 14, 2025. 

A pair of girls’ track and field athletes did not stand on the medal podium alongside a transgender athlete for high jump at the Oregon state championship on Saturday night. 

Footage obtained by Fox News Digital showed the two high school seniors, Reese Eckard of Sherwood High School and Alexa Anderson of Tigard High School, step down from their respective spots on the podium next to a trans athlete who represented Ida B. Wells High School. 

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Eckard, in fourth place, and Anderson, in third, each finished ahead of the trans athlete, who tied for fifth place. But the two females faced the opposite direction as the other competitors received their medals from officials. 

The footage then showed an official confront the two young women, and gesture for them to move away. Eckard and Anderson were then seen walking away from the podium and standing off to the side. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Oregon School Activities Association for a response. 

The trans athlete previously competed in the boys’ category in 2023 and 2024, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Eckard and Anderson were praised for not standing on the podium on social media, and were even shouted out by prominent conservative activist Riley Gaines. 

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“We didn’t refuse to stand on the podium out of hate. We did it because someone has to say this isn’t right. In order to protect the integrity and fairness of girls sports we must stand up for what is right,” Anderson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Girls and women making symbolic gestures to protest trans inclusion in sports has become a growing trend in 2025. 

On May 17 at a California track and field sectional final, Reese Hogan of Crean Lutheran High School stepped from the second-place spot onto the first-place medal podium after her trans opponent, AB Hernandez stepped down from it. Hogan’s stunt was lauded on social media by Gaines and others. 

On April 2, footage of women’s fencer Stephanie Turner kneeling to protest a trans opponent at a competition in Maryland, and subsequently getting punished for it, went viral and ignited global awareness and scrutiny against USA Fencing.

Oregon is one of many Democratic-controlled states that saw transgender athletes compete in girls’ track and field championships this weekend, with other highly-publicized incidents taking place in California, Washington, Maine and Minnesota. 

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a nonpartisan research institute, filed a Title IX discrimination complaint against Oregon for its laws that allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports on May 27. 

The complaint was filed to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which has already launched Title IX investigations against the high school sports leagues in California, Minnesota, Maine and Massachusetts. 

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Oregon girls’ track and field athletes Reese Eckard and Alexa Anderson don’t stand on a medal podium next to a trans opponent. (Courtesy of America First Policy Institute)

“Every girl deserves a fair shot – on the field, on the podium, and in life,” said Jessica Hart Steinmann, AFPI’s executive general counsel and vice chair of the Center for Litigation, in a statement. 

“When state institutions knowingly force young women to compete against biological males, they’re violating federal law and sending a devastating message to female athletes across the country.”

President Donald Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order on Feb. 5 and his administration has made combating the continued enabling of trans athletes in girls’ sports by Democratic states a priority. 

The U.S. Department of Justice has already launched a lawsuit against Maine for its defiance of Trump’s executive order, and the president suggested on Tuesday that federal funding pauses could be coming against California amid the situation involving Hernandez.

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