The father and his son had always been knotted together through a shared love of fishing, a narrative throughline from their homeland in Brazil and throughout their journey as immigrants to America.
When his son was just a little boy, the father provided him with a bamboo pole to go for tilapia in the pond near their hometown of Colatina, Espírito Santo, in Brazil. Later they fished with bobbers along the banks of the Charles River in Boston, where they applied for asylum; and they stepped up their fishing gear to go surfcasting for striped bass off Chappaquiddick’s Wasque Point on Martha’s Vineyard, where they embedded in the Island’s vibrant Brazilian community.
But the one thing they had not had a chance to do was to fish from a boat. From the shore, they looked at fellow anglers in boats and always wanted to fish like them. So on May 18, they were up early, full of excitement for their first fishing experience out on the water, through the invitation of a friend. Stripers were in, and the excitement of a new fishing season was in the air. Father and son left home around 5 am to help their friend launch his skiff in Menemsha, with the promise of some fishing time together after getting the boat in the water.
“We had wanted to fish on a boat on the sea for a long time. So we took the time to do it this summer, to enjoy it a bit, since I had worked a lot lately,” said Rogério da Silva Lima, 42, the father of Nycolas de Alvarenga Lima, now a 5-foot,11-inch teenager, who was 15 years old and just about to celebrate his 16th birthday.
Their fishing dreams turned into something closer to an immigrant’s nightmare when the U.S. Coast Guard pulled up alongside the craft and began asking questions, and looking for IDs. The Coast Guard would circle back, stopping them two more times. The first stop occurred less than half an hour after they had pushed off the dock in Menemsha. They had barely gotten their lines in the water and hadn’t even caught any fish — and, as it turned out, they wouldn’t. The last of the Coast Guard stops resulted in officials boarding their vessel, and the father and son were transferred to the Coast Guard boat, motored to Woods Hole, and handed over to U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents, who shackled their hands and feet.
“It was a traumatic experience,” Da Silva Lima said.
Their arrest sparked action among Vineyard activists, who were fast to organize legal support. That same evening, they contacted an attorney who was able to file an emergency habeas corpus petition that night so father and son wouldn’t be sent to Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, where immigrant families have denounced mistreatment, including to children.
Habeas corpus is a legal procedure with roots that go back to the 13th century’s Magna Carta, and it is enshrined in the Article I of the U.S. Constitution, allowing people who have been detained by the government to challenge their detention in court, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. “Habeas corpus” is Latin for “that you have the body”; it requires a court to evaluate anyone detained, and if found to have been detained “without sufficient cause,” it allows them to challenge their detention. This right now lies at the center of the legal strategy used by immigration attorneys and advocates for immigrants in an effort to stop the Trump administration from carrying out unlawful detention, and as a way to prevent the illegal deportation of their clients.
The Coast Guard, in a statement at the time of the arrest, said they received a report of a vessel possibly in distress south of Martha’s Vineyard on the morning of May 18, and explained that was why they first approached the fishing boat. The Coast Guard said it boarded the vessel around 10 am, and identified individuals who reportedly required “additional immigration status verification.” After checking with ICE, the Coast Guard determined that one passenger was a Brazilian national, and another was a minor traveling with his father. The Coast Guard said they worked with ICE “to ensure the family remained together” as they transferred them to ICE custody.
ICE officials said the agency transported Rogério Da Silva Lima and his 15-year-old son, Nycolas, to Woods Hole before transferring them to ICE custody on the mainland. Court records indicated the government intended to transfer them to Texas from there. The court records revealed that the father, two of his sons, and their mother had all appealed, but lost their case for asylum in 2023, and had stayed in the country without documentation for more than two years, so their deportation seemed an inevitability. But immigration advocates from the Island banded together to fight for the father and son to be returned to the Island, and to at least have a chance at a day in court. The Island community also came together to stage a protest in Menemsha in front of the Coast Guard station, and students led a walkout at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, where Nycolas is a student.
The Island solidarity had an impact. Nycolas was released after four days, then Da Silva Lima after nine days. Da Silva said he and his family say they are grateful.
“I don’t have words to thank everyone for all the care for my family, then and now,” Da Silva Lima said. “People who didn’t even know us used their time to protest and try to help. As an immigrant, you can feel rejected sometimes, but then you realize that most people are rooting for you despite a few who don’t. Most people support your goal to give a better life to your children.”
“I thought they would separate us,” Nycolas said. “I can’t thank everyone enough; we were able to get out because of them. It was hard, but I didn’t expect it would get so much attention, that the school would protest. It helped to know people are supporting us.”
People who recognize Da Silva Lima and Nycolas on the street have stopped to say hello and celebrate their return to the Island. Among Brazilians, Da Silva Lima senses apprehension: “They are scared because of what happened to me, they feel there’s no safe place ICE can’t go. They tell me, ‘How come you can’t even go fishing anymore?’”
In Woods Hole, father and son were handed over to ICE agents by the Coast Guard, and drove in separate cars to the ICE Processing Center in Burlington. There they reunited and spent the night in a small cell, where they got slim mats to sleep on, and small meals.
“Nycolas was crying, saying, ‘My dream is over now,’” the father said.
There in Burlington, Da Silva Lima made one phone call to his other son, Nayran, 17, who lives in Boston. “I told him I was going to be deported.”
In the meantime, U.S. District Court of Massachusetts Judges Indira Talwani and Julia E. Kobick ordered they remain in Massachusetts. Because minors cannot be held at the processing center, ICE agents brought father and son to a hotel. They stayed for three nights, sharing a bed, watching TV, and being constantly monitored by agents taking turns. “We couldn’t leave or use our phones,” Da Silva Lima said.
Nycolas was released on May 22, and returned to the Island. Da Silva Lima was transferred to Plymouth County Correctional Facility, where he shared a cell with four other immigrants. There were a lot of Brazilians, Jamaicans, Mexicans, and other Latin Americans, he said: “That place is huge. There are a lot of people.” He spent five nights in the facility he called “hell.” “They take your freedom, put you in a cell with four people you don’t know, the bathroom is an open toilet with no privacy,” he said. Da Silva Lima was transported to Burlington again on May 27, to be released with an ankle monitor.
The Lima family immigrated to the U.S. in 2021, but later the boys’ mother left the country. Initially, they lived in Boston, but in the past two years, the father has worked as a carpenter and painter on the Vineyard — first taking the ferry from Cape Cod, then moving to the Island with Nycolas. They had applied for asylum in 2023, but the case was rejected, as well as their appeal to the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals.
When Da Silva Lima was still in detention, he said, family and friends were not hopeful that he would be released. But after the judge’s decision, their mood improved. When the father received a call from Nycolas in Plymouth saying he would soon be released, he couldn’t believe it. “I said, ‘Don’t play games with me,’ and then broke down crying. I melted.”
The day he was released, he had only a note with the number of an MV LUCE Immigration Justice Network member in hand. As he left Burlington, Da Silva Lima met a swarm of dozens of people protesting outside the facility. It was Wednesday, the day activists and organizers usually protest against ICE there. Despite not knowing the person he should look for, he asked the help of a protester to call the MV LUCE member, who picked him up.
The Vineyard chapter of LUCE was created after the ICE raid of May 2025 that took 20 people on the Island. The group gathered funding and found an attorney who could file a petition that day. Many others in the community also helped: “A couple of hours after they were taken, someone called the LUCE hotline. That’s how they were able to act so quickly,” the MV LUCE member said, on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
“The first thing I did was hug my son,” Da Silva Lima said.
With his father returned home, Nycolas celebrated his birthday along with his brother Nayran and friends. At school, he shared the happiness of his classmates at his reappearance: “They thought they would never see me again.”
Besides fishing, father and son usually go out for lunch, dinner, or just for coffee and talk. Da Silva Lima describes Nycolas as calm and respectful, and a teenager who likes swimming and playing soccer. But he feels his son’s smile is not the same as before. “You can tell his smile feels heavier,” he said.
Judge Talwani ordered that Da Silva Lima be released on an order of supervision. This type of order doesn’t give permission to remain in the U.S., but allows ICE to do the logistical work for removing somebody without detaining them during that process, explains Amelia Lynn Ritenour, the attorney from Haven Immigration Law who represented the Limas.
In general, these orders include check-ins and a conduct rule. If ICE gathers the travel documents to demonstrate that there is now a so-called “significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future,” or somebody violates the terms of their order, then they can be redetained.
“Some might say I’m playing the victim, but I don’t think I’m a victim. I came here to fulfill my dream and my family’s dream. But, unfortunately, all this happened,” Da Silva Lima said.
In moments of difficulty, he turns to the Bible, especially Psalm 23, which he recited by heart during the interview: “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing … Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
He said it’s challenging to think about the future, as his plans changed so much and that it’s unfortunate there are so few avenues for immigrants to stay in the U.S. legally: “This is a situation I can’t solve the way I want, the way I imagined. I know I have to leave.”
Maria Barros contributed reporting for this story.