Mass. working with other states to try to find missing 13-year-old after ICE raid
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services told MassLive it is assisting Massachusetts in its search for a 13-year-old from Worcester who went missing.
The 13-year-old is the youngest daughter of Rosane Ferreira-de Oliveira, a woman from Brazil who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Eureka Street in Worcester on May 8 .
Following Ferreira-de Oliveira's arrest and detainment, her 17-year-old and 13-year-old daughters went into the care of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF). The 17-year-old has since left the United States for Brazil to be with her older sister, Augusta Clara Moura, according to the family's lawyer.
The 13-year-old daughter is currently missing, according to the Worcester Police Department. She was last seen in Worcester on July 20 and the Worcester Police Department has been looking for her, MassLive previously reported .
"These are heartbreaking and complex situations and DCF has been working extensively with law enforcement to ensure their safety," Secretary of Health and Human Services Kiame Mahaniah said in a statement on Friday.
Angélica Almeida, a woman from Philadelphia, told MassLive this week that she gave the 13-year-old a ride from Worcester to Maple Shade, New Jersey, and did not know she was Ferreira-de Oliveira's daughter.
Maple Shade is about a 30-minute drive to Pennsylvania.
"Keeping children safe is our top priority at the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS)," the press secretary for the Pennsylvania DHS wrote on Friday. "Massachusetts has alerted Pennsylvania to this situation and we are working with Massachusetts."
In a statement provided to MassLive, the New Jersey DCF wrote that it collaborates with "law enforcement as necessary to assist with missing child cases in and outside of New Jersey" but said that state and federal confidentiality laws prohibit the agency from "commenting on or confirming involvement in any specific cases."
The lawyer for the family did not immediately respond to requests for comments on Friday.
How Almeida came across the girl
In July, Almeida was visiting her sister in Worcester.
While she was there, she said she saw a Facebook post in a group for Brazilians living in Philadelphia asking for anyone to give a person from Massachusetts a ride back to Philadelphia.
The person claimed the ride was for his sister and made an agreement for Almeida to pick her up and drive her down to Philadelphia for $200.
"I wasn't scared because I didn't know who she was, and didn't know she was missing," Almeida told MassLive. "To me, I was just giving a ride to a girl who was going to live with her brother."
Almeida picked up the girl in Worcester on July 27. The girl told Almeida that she was 15 and that her parents were in Brazil. Almeida said the girl looked tired and as if she hadn't showered but she seemed "nice" nonetheless.
For most of the drive, the girl didn't talk. Almeida received a notification from the person who requested the transportation, saying that the destination would be changed to Maple Shade, New Jersey.
After she dropped off the girl in Maple Shade, Almeida contacted the requester about her money. She said that the person told her that he wouldn't pay because she was being rude. She then posted to Facebook about her situation and she saw a missing child alert. The picture of the child was of a 13-year-old from Worcester, whom Almeida then recognized as the teenager she had driven to New Jersey.
Almeida had no idea that the girl she had driven was missing and that she was 13, not 15 as she told her.
"After I found out that she was missing and it came to my attention that she used my ride to escape, I was obviously scared," she said. "I don't want to be involved in anything involving ICE. I don't want to be involved in controversy and I also don't want people to think that I helped her, because I didn't even know who she was."
Almeida gave DCF the address of the house where she dropped off the 13-year-old.
The teen's mother is currently being detained at the Strafford County Correctional Center in Dover, New Hampshire.
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Read the original article on MassLive .
