Outside of Worcester City Hall Tuesday evening, nearly 100 people rallied against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and their recent arrest in Worcester.
The protesters gathered on Worcester Common at 5:30 p.m. and called out ICE for its arrest of Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira, a Brazilian mother of three currently being held in a Rhode Island facility, on Eureka Street on May 8.
The rally, which was organized by Mysti Green, Walter Crockett and members of the progressive political group Indivisible Worcester, featured signs with phrases such as “Crush ICE.” One poster presented an image of Worcester City Manager Eric D. Batista wearing a vest that reads ICE.
Initially the rally was set to take place leading up to a City Council meeting Tuesday at 6:30. The meeting was switched from in person to virtual after the rally was announced. Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty said city officials received “threats of violence.”
Read more: Report: ICE used Brazilian woman’s family as ‘bait’ in chaotic Worcester arrest
People banged on drums, rang cowbells and chanted for ICE to “get out of Worcester.”
“We want change,” said Green. “Changes to City Hall and then go to the state and then the White House. That’s the goal, and to mobilize.”
Green told MassLive that if the city still refuses to take action over what happened on Eureka Street, there will be more protests in the future.
Criticism was also directed at the Worcester Police Department (WPD), who were called to Eureka Street and subsequently arrested Ferreira-De Oliveira’s daughter and School Committee Candidate Ashley R. Spring.
Spring spoke at Tuesday evening’s rally, speaking out against the decision made by city officials to hold that night’s city council meeting virtually instead of at City Hall.
“While they may be afraid, we are not afraid,” Spring said of Worcester’s leaders.
Walter Crockett said that if city officials did receive threats, it wasn’t from the organizers of the peaceful protest.
“We’re nonviolent,” Crockett said. “We want to get America back and we want to do it the right way.”
What happened at Tuesday’s City Council meeting?
Many residents did attend the virtual city council meeting, some speaking during a public comment period in order to admonish the city council, the city administration and WPD.
Some accused the department of collaborating with ICE in their operation on Eureka Street.
“There are two explanations for this,” said Marcus Palumbo of Clark University at the meeting. “Either you, the council, have completely lost control over the police department, or you are actively complicit in their actions.“
In his comments during the meeting Petty said that there needs to be an understanding of what Worcester Police Officers can do when it comes to dealing with ICE. Last week, Petty filed an order asking City Manager Eric D. Batista and Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier to draft new policy regarding interactions between city officials and ICE.
“I take this seriously,” Petty said. “I think the Worcester Police Department went to the scene and were trying to calm things down. And this is why we need to have a policy and protocols on how we interact with ICE.”
City Council Vice Chairman and Councilor-at-Large Khrystian King praised District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj for her leadership during the incident on Eureka Street. Haxhiaj was one of many people who confronted ICE agents on Thursday during the arrest of the mother.
King also renewed his call for a civilian review board to provide police oversight and said there could have been a better response to how Worcester Police Officers handled the arrest of the mother’s daughter.
“This child should have been held, she should have been restrained. She wasn’t trying to harm anyone,” King said. “She was trying to save her family and doesn’t speak the language. We don’t know what was going on in her head. We can do better and we must do better.”
Who is Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira?
On the morning of May 8, ICE agents on Eureka Street in Worcester arrested Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira of Brazil.
A mother of three daughters and a grandmother of an infant, Ferreira-De Oliveira is currently being detained at the Wyatt Detention Center, in Central Falls, R.I., according to ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS).
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused Ferreira-De Oliveira of entering the country illegally in 2022, according to a statement from the agency, which was shared with Spectrum News 1 Worcester.
A spokesperson for a lawyer representing one of Ferreira-De Oliveira’s daughters in a separate case told MassLive on Monday that she was seeking asylum.
The statement also reads that she was arrested by Worcester police on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a pregnant victim.
Court records obtained by MassLive read that Ferreira-De Oliveira was suspected of using a phone-charging cable to strike a pregnant relative three months ago.
At 1:47 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1, a Worcester police officer went to an apartment on Main Street, the police report read. A pregnant relative told the officer that Ferreira-De Oliveira struck them with a phone charging cable. Ferreira-De Oliveira was arrested that day.
She initially appeared in court on Feb. 3, where she pleaded not guilty and paid $500 cash bail, according to court records. Her last court appearance was a pre-trial hearing on March 24.
On Tuesday, Judge Zachary Hillman scheduled Ferreira-De Oliveira‘s trial date for July 18, according to court filings.
What happened on Eureka Street
On the morning of May 8, pandemonium broke out on Eureka Street as more than 30 people protested and confronted ICE agents for arresting Ferreira-De Oliveira.
Screams and chants of “where is the warrant” were heard throughout the neighborhood. By about 11 a.m. Ferreira-De Oliveira was placed in a car in the middle of the streets according to Jill Phillips of Worcester, who was at the scene.
After 11 a.m., Worcester police officers arrived on Eureka Street. The officers were called to the scene when a federal agent who was surrounded by a “large group of about 25 people,” police said in a statement.
As the car containing Ferreira-De Oliveira was about to leave, her daughter, who carried a newborn in her arms, stood in front of the car and tried to stop it, police said.
Officers told her that she was endangering the baby and that she needed to move. She handed the baby to another woman, ran up to the car and kicked the passenger side door as the car drove away.
Officers then proceeded to arrest the daughter, pushing her to the ground.
The daughter was arrested for reckless endangerment of a child, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
She has since been released from custody and is now is now with family friends along with her sister Augusta Clara, the baby and another sister who is also a minor.
Ashely R. Spring, a candidate running for the Worcester School Committee, was also arrested on Eureka Street.
The incident in connection with Spring occurred at 11:13 a.m., according to a police report. Officers saw Spring push and shove other officers trying to arrest a woman, the daughter of the woman ICE detained.
“Officers also observed Ashley directly point at and spray an unknown liquid in a bottle at officers that were on duty attempting to conduct their job,” the report read.
On May 9, one day after the arrests, Spring was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct and interfering with police officers.
Judge Janet McGuiggan entered a not-guilty plea on Spring’s behalf. Spring was released on her own personal recognizance and is scheduled to return to court for a pre-trial hearing on June 23.
