The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that immigration agents detained a 13-year-old after local officials in Everett “contacted federal law enforcement and notified them” that the teenager had been arrested by police at a school bus stop.
The announcement, in a news release with the stated intent to “set the record straight,” did not say exactly how Everett authorities “notified” federal immigration officials, and it added further contention to a controversy that has taken hold in Everett since the teenager’s arrest last week.
The DHS release came hours after Mayor Carlo DeMaria again insisted in a news interview, “We did not call ICE.”
According to a transcript of the interview with El Mundo, DeMaria said that after the teen was arrested, and after his fingerprints were entered into a nationwide database, ICE “immediately sent the Everett P.D. a detainment form saying that they would like this young man.”
Everett police arrested the seventh-grade boy on weapons charges at a bus stop on Oct. 9. His arrest has sparked controversy in the week since, amid questions over whether Everett police held the teen and notified federal agents so that he could be detained by ICE. Immigration advocates and family supporters have also asked why the teen was brought immediately to a federal facility in Virginia, where he is currently being detained.
Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights on Friday called for a state probe into the teen’s arrest and detention “to determine if Everett police officers unlawfully extended his detention or otherwise violated applicable legal protections.”
“This chilling incident exposes what may be a dangerous breakdown in legal protections for immigrants in our state — and the fact that it involves a child makes it even more alarming,” said Jillian Lenson, senior staff attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights.
Initially, police did not disclose circumstances of the arrest, because the boy is a juvenile under state law, but they indicated he posed a public safety threat. The Globe is not identifying him because he is a juvenile.
DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on social media earlier this week that the boy had a large knife and a gun when he was arrested.
But DeMaria told El Mundo Boston that while police received a tip that the boy had a gun, when they arrested him they found a knife. Everett Police Chief Paul Strong also said during a news conference Tuesday that police did not find a a gun.
In their statement Thursday seeking to set the “record straight” on what DHS called “misleading reporting,” the agency again alleged that the boy had a gun. The agency included a portion of the Everett police report noting that a complaint was made that a “juv showed up after school with a gun.” The agency did not include the entire police report.
The agency alleged that the boy had threatened to “shoot and kill” another student.
DHS also doubled down on its claim that the “13-year-old alien from Brazil” was arrested by Everett police on dangerous weapons charges for “allegedly possessing a firearm and a 5-7-inch knife.”
DHS said the teen has ties to a Brazilian gang called “33″ and that he has been mentioned in nearly a dozen Everett police complaints referencing “a laundry list of criminal behavior.”
The boy entered the United States without authorization with a family “unit” in Arizona on Sept. 24, 2021, the DHS statement said.
“Here are the facts: this individual and suspected gang member posed a public safety threat with an extensive rap sheet,” McLaughlin said in the statement.
“According to the police report, he showed the handgun in his waistband to another student and said [he] was planning on killing a fellow student,” McLaughlin said. “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, federal law enforcement is restoring common sense and law-and-order to our streets.”
“This public safety threat will stay in juvenile detention pending further proceedings,” McLaughlin added.
DeMaria told reporters that the teen has a criminal history and is known to local law enforcement. Officers acted on a tip that the boy was on his way to school to harm another boy with what was “believed” to be a gun and a double-sided knife, DeMaria said.
Officers found a knife when they arrested him at a bus stop in front of the Albert N. Parlin School, DeMaria said.
After Everett police received the detainer from ICE, immigration agents were at the police station within an hour, DeMaria said.
According to the DHS statement, ICE Boston took custody of the teen and the next day, Oct. 10, he was transported to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va.
The boy’s mother told the Globe that her son is in the seventh grade at the Parlin School. She declined to comment on whether her son has had run-ins with the law. She also told the Globe she was waiting at the police station for her son when he was detained by ICE.
According to DHS, the teen is referenced in 11 Everett police complaints for alleged crimes ranging from “flash mob” style shoplifting, to consuming alcohol underage, breaking and entering, vandalism, theft, and fighting.
In May, the teen was arraigned in juvenile court in Cambridge for knowingly receiving stolen property, breaking and entering, and malicious destruction of property, DHS said.
In July, while on probation, he was arraigned for assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to the DHS statement.
DeMaria told El Mundo that the teen “caused problems” at Everett’s Fourth of July festivities.
“He was going to go harm a young boy,” DeMaria said. “We’d be talking about a 12-year-old who was murdered. Instead, we’re talking about a 13-year-old boy who’s in custody in Virginia.”
Spencer Buell of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.