Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed the country’s most aggressive anti-ICE law on Aug. 5 and called it a public safety measure. Two days before she picked up the pen, ICE officers in her state arrested a Brazilian national convicted of aggravated murder who had been living in Massachusetts and walking into a district courthouse — the exact kind of arrest her new law is written to stop. The case was detailed by Fox News.
Maycon Souto Dos Reis, 54, was convicted of aggravated murder in Brazil on Sept. 14, 2024, and sentenced to 14 years and three months in prison, at which point an arrest warrant was issued. He had already fled. Dos Reis crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in June 2024, was apprehended, and was then released into the United States under then-President Joe Biden’s open-border policies, according to ICE.
He first came to the attention of ICE’s Boston field office after a May 29 arrest for unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in Southborough. Officers took him into custody Aug. 3 during a targeted operation at Westborough District Court in Westborough. He remains in ICE custody pending the outcome of deportation proceedings.
“This is yet another example of what the media often characterizes as a non-criminal, when in reality, many of these individuals are murderers, sexual predators, gang members and more: They simply do not have a criminal record in the United States,” Acting ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston Field Office Director David Wesling said in a statement. “We will continue to pursue these dangerous criminal aliens that sanctuary politicians fight to protect.”
Notice where the arrest happened. A courthouse. Under Healey’s PROTECT Act, signed 48 hours later, ICE is barred from courthouses, schools, childcare centers, hospitals and healthcare facilities. The law also bans new 287(g) agreements with federal immigration authorities and opens the door to civil rights claims against government officials, including ICE agents themselves.
“The PROTECT Act is the strongest law in the country to protect people from ICE, because no one should be afraid to send their child to school, seek medical care or fear reporting a crime or appearing in court,” Healey wrote on Aug. 5, announcing the signing. “It makes us all less safe. So we are getting ICE out of our courthouses, schools and hospitals.”
A convicted killer was standing in a Massachusetts courthouse. Federal officers were allowed to be there, so they took him. Two days later the governor made that illegal. That is not an abstract policy dispute — that is a specific man who would still be at large in Massachusetts if the calendar had run in the other order.
ICE officials noted that Massachusetts has been at the center of clashes between state and federal officials over immigration enforcement, and described the jurisdiction as one where local policies complicate federal efforts to locate and arrest immigration offenders. The agency did not release additional details about the Brazilian murder case, including when the killing occurred.
“DHS’s message is clear: If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, arrest you, and you will never return,” ICE wrote in a release Monday.
This is a window into what sanctuary politics actually purchases. Not safety, and not compassion — just distance between a fugitive and the officers looking for him. Healey got her signing ceremony. Massachusetts got two extra days of luck.
Source: foxnews.com