The Brazilian man who was detained while fishing off Menemsha last week will be released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody while his deportation case continues to play out.
Massachusetts U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani held a hearing on Tuesday and ordered the government to release Rogerio da Silva Lima no later than noon on Wednesday. Judge Talwani ruled that ICE can present its evidence to have Mr. da Silva Lima removed from the U.S., but he did not have to remain in custody while the government gets its paperwork in order.
The detention of Mr. da Silva Lima, along with his 15-year-old son Nycolas Al Varenga Lima, spurred more than 100 people to rally in Menemsha on Saturday. Islanders have also donated tens of thousands to help with their legal case.
“We’re all very happy with the judges’ decision to release them,” said their attorney Amelia Lynn Ritenour.
Mr. da Silva Lima and Nycolas were fishing with a friend near Menemsha Bight last Monday when they were approached by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard said they had received a call from a person who worried that the boat appeared in distress.
Though the boat was not having any issues, the Coast Guard said the vessel was missing a state registration, prompting the agency to check if any of the people on board had any warrants.
Mr. da Silva Lima and his son came to the U.S. from Brazil in 2021 and settled on the Vineyard, where the father works and his son attends the regional high school. Immigration officials ordered the family to leave in 2023, according to ICE, but the process was never carried out.
ICE decided to take Nycolas into its custody along with his father to avoid separating them, according to the Coast Guard. Nycolas was ordered to be released on Friday to his adult brother, though his legal case also continues.
Tuesday’s remote hearing for Mr. da Silva Lima took about 25 minutes and focused on details of Mr. da Silva Lima’s past interactions with immigration officials. He entered the U.S. on Nov. 10, 2021 and was briefly detained soon after.
He was released by the government at the time while he appealed for asylum. His request for asylum was rejected by the board of immigration appeals on Feb. 2, 2024, which should have kicked off a 90-day statutory removal process where he could have been detained, according to Judge Talwani.
But that apparently never happened under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Mr. da Silva Lima continued to reside in the U.S.
Judge Talwani reasoned that because the government had a chance to previously hold him during the removal process but didn’t, that was not cause to hold him now during the new legal case.
“DHS didn’t do what they were supposed to do and put the person in custody in [2024],” she said. “So to say, well, now we get to do it and put them in custody ignores what Congress says [how] it’s all supposed to work.”
The judge did warn Mr. da Silva Lima’s lawyer that this ruling didn’t mean he can stay here long term.
“This is not an open invitation for Mr. da Silva Lima to get to stay here,” Judge Talwani said. “Whatever is happening between now and when he is removed, it’s not being spent in detention if there’s no need – at taxpayers’ expense – to do that.”
Ms. Ritenour said the process is set up so DHS doesn’t hold people for undetermined amounts of time while it processes deportations.
“There’s still a removal order but now [DHS has] to comply with the regulations,” she said.
If the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, believes he will become a flight risk or there are other issues, they can use the procedure for revoking someone’s bail, Judge Talwani added.
The judge did say that ICE could enforce certain restrictions on Mr. da Silva Lima’s release from a Plymouth detention facility, but recommended against anything such as an abnormally high bail to keep him in custody.
MV Luce, the Island chapter of an immigrant rights group that helped file the habeas corpus petition for Mr. Da Silva Lima, cheered the judge's ruling, but said more needed to be done.
“We are delighted that Rogerio will be home with his son shortly,” the group said Tuesday. “While we celebrate this, Rogerio and Nycolas never should have been taken into custody in the first place. We will continue to fight for this family and all in detainment. ICE must be abolished and the inhumanity and brutality against immigrants must end.”
This article appears in May 29, 2026.
Excellent ruling.
Waste of resources, he was already ordered to be sent back in 2023.
There’s still a removal order and he will most likely be deported. You don’t get to pick and choose which federal laws you enforce.
The good thing to come out of this is that between now and his deportation he will not have to spend it in a facility.
Despite what MAGA believes that most progressives are fighting for (open borders and other BS), we want everyone, regardless of status, to be treated with humanity and dignity, And for the government to follow the Constitution and its own legal procedures regarding due process.
Down Islander, I agree that the government should follow the Constitution and its own legal procedures. That is exactly the point.
But it is rich to invoke “due process” only after the reported immigration process was already followed, asylum was rejected, a removal order remained in place, and the family stayed anyway.
Judge Talwani did not say there was no removal order. She did not say he gets to remain here. She said DHS missed its proper detention window and cannot simply restart the clock now. Fair enough. The government should follow the law.
But so should everyone else.
There would have been no detention, no rally, no legal scramble, no article, and no constitutional outrage if the original lawful order had been followed in the first place.
Apparently “follow the law” becomes controversial only when the law finally reaches someone the Island likes. Due process matters. But pretending a removal order was merely a suggestion is the Island’s usual selective morality dressed up as principle. As usual.
This deportation order happened during the Biden years.