Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira, a Brazilian mother of three arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Worcester this month, has a damaged shoulder and is not receiving any pain medication at the facility where she is currently detained, according to her lawyer.
Attorney Paul Toland told MassLive that Ferreira-De Oliveira is currently wearing a sling while she is presently detained at the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island.
Ferreira-De Oliveira is being held following her arrest on May 8 at Eureka Street in Worcester. Toland believes that her shoulder was damaged due to excessive force used by ICE agents who apprehended her that day. He is not aware of the extent of the damage to her shoulder.
“Wyatt Detention is a very depressing detention center,” Toland said. “With barbed wire everywhere. She’s not even getting pain medication in there for her pain.”
The lawyer added that Ferreira-De Oliveira had been frequently moved to different cells at the facility, so she would not see or hear those expressing support for her outside of the detention center.
The Department of Homeland Security, ICE and the Wyatt Detention Center did not respond immediately to requests for comments on Thursday.
Toland said he was assigned Ferreira-De Oliveira‘s case on Friday, May 16, and met with her for the first time face-to-face this week.
The mother will likely remain in Rhode Island as her case will be held at the Boston Immigration Court, according to Toland. An individual hearing will be held for Ferreira-De Oliveira but a judge has not yet set a date, Toland told MassLive.
“Typically if a person is detained though, their final individual hearing is heard within 1.5 to 2.5 months,” Toland explained.
Ferreira-De Oliveira is also not in immediate danger of being deported, Toland added.
The lawyer told MassLive the case does not have a timeline as of yet and that he could not disclose any legal strategy.
Asylum claims
In a statement provided to Spectrum News 1, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Ferreira-De Oliveira entered the country illegally in August 2022, which led to ICE taking her into custody,
Toland told MassLive, however, that the mother of three was paroled and allowed into the country by ICE as she pursued asylum.
Asylum is a form of protection that is granted to individuals fleeing their home country due to persecution or fear of persecution based on specific grounds such as race, religion, nationality or political opinion, according to the nonprofit organization the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
“When someone is paroled into the United States, that means they are allowed to enter and stay in the U.S. temporarily even if they don’t have a visa or formal admission,” Toland explained. “It’s not a legal entry in the same way as someone who comes in on a visa or green card but it still allows a person to be here lawful for a specific period and purpose.”
In the case of Ferreira-De Oliveira, Toland said that she pursued an asylum claim. Once that asylum claim was submitted to the immigration court, the mother was allowed to stay here indefinitely until the asylum application was approved or denied, the lawyer said.
“In order to become an asylee, an immigration judge would have to hear the merits of the case and make a determination to approve to deny the claim after an individual hearing,” Toland said. “You can only apply for asylum at a port of entry or while inside the country.”
Toland said he would not further speak about Ferreira-De Oliveira‘s asylum claim due to privacy concerns.
In addition to the claims of illegal entry, ICE claims that the mother is a “violent criminal illegal alien,” according to a statement provided to WHDH.
“She was arrested by local police for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery on a pregnant victim,” according to the statement.
Court records obtained by MassLive read that Ferreira-De Oliveira was suspected of using a phone-charging cable to strike a pregnant relative in February.
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.
Last Tuesday, Judge Zachary Hillman scheduled Ferreira-De Oliveira‘s trial date for July 18, according to court filings.
How the ICE arrest came to be
The sounds of screaming and chants echoed throughout Worcester’s Eureka Street on the morning of May 8.
As ICE apprehended Ferreira-De Oliveira, more than 30 people, including District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj, demanded the agents not take her and show a warrant for the arrest.
Worcester Police Officers were also at the scene, and they arrested Ferreira-De Oliveira‘s teenage daughter and now-disqualified Worcester School Committee candidate, Ashley Spring.
Augusta Clara Moura, Ferreira-De Oliveira’s 21-year-old daughter and mother of a 3-month-old baby, said the arrest of her mother started after her partner honked at an undercover car with ICE agents.
Through Clara Moura’s attorney, Andrew George Lattarulo, Clara Moura said that her partner, Samarone Alves Ferreira-De Souza, was arrested by federal agents the day before ICE took her mother.
Ferreira-De Souza, who is the father of the 3-month-old, had honked at a car that cut him off while he was driving to work, according to Clara Moura. The car turned out to be an undercover ICE vehicle and agents arrested him.
“He had committed no crime,” according to Clara Moura.
Ferreira-De Souza is currently being held at the Pine Prairie Correctional Facility in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, according to ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS).
Lattarulo previously told MassLive he is providing legal representation for Clara Moura’s partner.
A day after her partner was arrested, Clara Moura said ICE came to her home, telling her to return her partner’s car and sign immigration paperwork.
She said she left her house with her 17-year-old sister and her baby, intending to comply with the order.
“That’s when ICE stopped my car and told me I was under arrest,” Clara Moura said. “Since I was with my baby, I called my mother to come take my son.”
When her mother arrived, ICE agents attempted and succeeded in arresting her.
Clara Moura claims that ICE agents also attempted to take her baby from her but they backed down due to protests from neighbors.
Lattarulo told MassLive last week that ICE threatened to arrest Clara Moura and her 17-year-old sister, an account that matches reporting from Rolling Stone Magazine, which said that Clara Moura and her sister were used as “bait” for ICE to arrest their mother.
Clara Moura, who saw her mother be apprehended by the agents that morning, launched a GoFundMe last week explaining the events that led up to her mother’s arrest.
Toland said he could not comment on the reporting from Rolling Stone magazine or Clara Moura’s account.
Body camera footage, protests and policy
On May 16, Worcester officials released the body camera footage and 911 calls from the May 8 arrest following pressure from the public, including a rally during which residents accused Worcester officials of assisting ICE in arresting Ferreira-De Oliveira.
The footage and audio are taken from body cameras worn by officers Juan Vallejo, Patrick Hanlon and Shauna McGuirk.
In Officer Hanlon’s footage, District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj is shown walking toward the officers and Ferreira-De Oliveira. Haxhiaj grabbed Ferreira-De Oliveira’s arm and pleaded with the agents not to take her. Two of the ICE agents then proceeded to fling the councilor off Ferreira-De Oliveira.
As the agents moved to a gold Ford SUV, Haxhiaj then reached out for Ferreira-De Oliveira. Hanlon grabs her hands to pull her back and tells her to stop.
“I cannot stop!” Haxhiaj yelled at the officer.
Clara Moura, who is being held back by School Committee candidate Ashley Spring, reaches out to the vehicle and says “no” multiple times. Hanlon responds by saying that ICE will offer an explanation.
Haxhiaj and Spring yell that the agents will not explain, with Spring telling Hanlon that ICE does “not have a judicial warrant.”
At around 2 minutes and 25 seconds into the footage, an ICE officer says, “We do not need a judicial warrant for this arrest.”
Body camera footage from Hanlon and Officer Juan Vallejo showed Ferreira-De Oliveira’s teenage daughter run up to the side of the SUV’s front passenger door.
Police later claimed she tried to kick the door, but it is difficult to confirm this due to the shakiness of the cameras and the large police presence.
Vallejo and other officers surrounded the girl and moved her to the ground on the street.
During the arrest, an officer yells, “You’re under arrest for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.”
Police officers saw Spring push and shove other officers trying to arrest the daughter, according to a police report.
“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.
It turns out, however, that the “unknown” liquid was water.
At the 2:30 mark in the video, Vallejo approaches Spring and points his finger at her, listing charges for another officer: “Disorderly, disturbance, and she sprayed me in the face with water.”
As he moves away from her, the audio catches Spring saying, “It was water.”
Spring was charged on May 9 with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon — that being the “unknown liquid” — along with charges of assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct and interfering with police officers.
Lt. Sean Murtha of the Worcester Police Department told MassLive on Saturday that he was not aware of the department dropping any of Spring’s charges despite police saying the liquid was water in the video.
The daughter, meanwhile, was charged with reckless endangerment of a child, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to the Worcester Police Department.
After her arrest, she was released from custody and is currently staying with family friends along with her 21-year-old sister, Augusta Clara Moura, Clara Moura’s 3-month-old son and her other sister, who is also a minor.
In a statement on May 16, Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier announced that the Worcester Police Department is requesting that the court dismiss the case against Ferreira-De Oliveira’s daughter.
Even though the department wishes to have the case against the daughter dismissed, Saucier noted, however, that “it is important to emphasize that assaulting or interfering with law enforcement officers as they carry out their duties is never acceptable.”
Additionally, City Manager Eric D. Batista issued an executive order on May 16 that establishes “guidelines for local response and involvement in federal enforcement of immigration laws and operations, including investigations and civil detainments performed by ICE officers.”
During his State of the City address on Wednesday, Batista spoke about the events of May 8 and acknowledged those who are pained by what happened.
“I know that many of you listening tonight, and residents across Worcester are in pain after the events on Eureka Street on May 8,” said Batista after he took the podium at the Jean McDonough Arts Center’s BrickBox Theater. “You are not alone in that pain.”
Protesters interrupted Batista’s speech, with one carrying a sign with a doctored image of Batista wearing an ICE vest and another playing audio from the arrest on repeat.
