Federal immigration agents arrested a Brazilian man convicted of aggravated murder outside a Westborough courtroom on August 3, just two days before Governor Maura Healey signed a sweeping new state law that would have kept ICE out of that same courthouse. Maycon Souto Dos Reis, 54, was taken into custody by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston agents immediately after a routine court appearance, capping a case that traces back to a Massachusetts traffic stop and a murder conviction thousands of miles away in Brazil.
Dos Reis had been in Westborough District Court for a charge of driving without a license, stemming from a May 29 traffic stop in Southborough, according to the New York Post. That local infraction is what first put him on ERO Boston's radar, and it was enough to trigger a federal background check that uncovered a far more serious case abroad. Westborough District Court, located at 186 Oak Street, handles criminal and civil matters for five Worcester County towns — Westborough, Southborough, Northborough, Grafton, and Shrewsbury — which is why a Southborough traffic stop ended up prosecuted there, according to Mass.gov.
ICE officials said Dos Reis had been living in Massachusetts after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in June 2024. According to ICE, he was released into the country under then-President Joe Biden's border policies at the time. Brazilian judicial authorities sentenced him to 14 years and three months in prison for aggravated murder on September 14, 2024, and issued a formal arrest warrant the same day — after he had already entered the United States, per the New Bedford Guide.
A Fugitive Case Federal Officials Call a Warning Sign
ICE has not released additional details about the underlying murder case in Brazil. Acting ERO Boston Field Office Director David Wesling framed the arrest as emblematic of a broader pattern, saying many people characterized by media as non-criminals are actually murderers, sexual predators, or gang members. Wesling said ICE will continue pursuing dangerous criminal aliens, and the agency said Dos Reis will not return to the United States. The Department of Homeland Security, now led by Secretary Markwayne Mullin, said criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the country. Dos Reis remains in ICE custody pending deportation proceedings.
The arrest lands amid a much larger enforcement push in Massachusetts. Federal authorities wrapped up Operation Patriot 2.0 in October 2025, a statewide sweep that resulted in more than 1,400 arrests, including over 600 people with significant criminal convictions or active foreign warrants, as Hoodline previously reported. It also follows other recent ERO Boston courthouse and facility arrests of undocumented immigrants facing serious charges, including a Guatemalan man accused in a Billerica rape case and a Brazilian national accused of child rape and kidnapping.
PROTECT Act Signed Two Days Later, Closing the Door on Courthouse Arrests
Two days after Dos Reis was taken into custody, Governor Healey signed the PROTECT Act — formally titled An Act promoting rule of law, oversight, trust and equal constitutional treatment, or House Bill H.5620, now Chapter 163 of the Acts of 2026. The law took effect immediately upon her signature on August 5, following a six-member legislative conference committee compromise, according to the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Healey said the measure is the strongest law in the country to protect people from ICE, and that Massachusetts would get the agency out of courthouses, schools, and hospitals.
Under the new law, ICE is barred from operating in courthouses, schools, childcare centers, hospitals, and healthcare facilities — the very setting where Dos Reis was arrested just days earlier. The PROTECT Act also creates new civil liability, allowing individuals to file civil rights lawsuits in state court against government officials, including federal ICE agents, for unjustified enforcement actions. It bans new 287(g) agreements between local or state police and federal immigration authorities, though it explicitly leaves the Massachusetts Department of Correction's existing 287(g) agreement in place. The law additionally provides stronger protections for parents who are detained or deported.
School districts across the state must now establish written emergency response plans for interactions with law enforcement and federal immigration agents by September 1 or the first day of school, whichever comes first, per the same municipal association report. The legislation also codifies the framework set by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's 2017 Lunn v. Commonwealth ruling, which found that state court officers and police lack authority under state law to detain people solely on civil ICE detainers — a case Healey's office argued while she was attorney general.
Advocates Cheer Law, Question Federal Enforcement Timing
Immigrant advocacy coalitions, including the Brazilian Worker Center and the ACLU of Massachusetts, campaigned for more than a year to get the PROTECT Act passed, citing the state's large Brazilian immigrant population as a key reason for the push, according to the ACLU of Massachusetts. Those groups have long argued that ICE operations in courthouses and other sensitive locations undermine trust between immigrant communities and public institutions, even as federal officials maintain that targeted arrests of people with serious foreign convictions are necessary for public safety.
Whether the PROTECT Act's new civil liability provisions will hold up against federal immigration enforcement — and whether federal authorities might challenge the law in court — remains an open question. For now, the Dos Reis arrest stands as one of the last courthouse operations ICE could carry out in Massachusetts before the new restrictions took hold.
