Worcester mother, freed from ICE custody, hopes her children come home
When Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira — the Worcester mother arrested and detained for five months by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) — was finally released from detainment, she was looking forward to being reunited with her 17-year-old and 13-year-old daughters.
As for when she will be with her daughters again, the answer is unclear.
In an interview on Monday, Ferreira-De Oliveira, through a translator at her lawyer's office, told MassLive that her daughters have not yet returned to her.
One of the daughters, the 13-year-old, is in the care of the Department of Children and Families (DCF), according to the mother. Ferreira-De Oliveira said that she is working with DCF to have her daughter return to her. She and her lawyers at Paul Toland Law LLC in Boston said that it could take 20 to 30 days for the two to be reunited.
Spokespeople for DCF did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Both the 13-year-old and the 17-year-old were placed under DCF care after their mother's arrest. In July, it was reported that both children went missing.
Ferreira-De Oliveira told MassLive that the two had run away from DCF care because they had a hard time adjusting to the new environment. She said she was incredibly worried when she found out both of them had gone missing. She wasn't sure exactly where the two had traveled, but she had heard reports that they had gone through New Jersey and Florida.
Angélica Almeida, a woman from Philadelphia, claimed in August that she gave the 13-year-old daughter a ride from Worcester to Maple Shade, New Jersey, on July 27, not knowing that she was Ferreira-De Oliveira's daughter.
In August, the 13-year-old was found safe in Massachusetts and was returned to DCF care.
The other daughter, the 17-year-old, is still reported missing, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A family lawyer previously told MassLive that she went to Brazil to be with her adult sister, Augusta Clara Moura. Ferreira-De Oliveira, however, told MassLive on Monday that the 17-year-old was in the United States and safe but was unaware of her whereabouts. When she was released from custody, Ferreira-De Oliveira contacted the 17-year-old by phone and told her to come home as soon as possible.
The 17-year-old and Clara Moura both watched as their mother was arrested in front of a crowd of more than 30 people on Eureka Street. The crowd shouted at the ICE agents, demanding that they not take the mother.
As Ferreira-De Oliveira was placed into a gold SUV to be taken away, the 17-year-old ran up to the vehicle's passenger side door. Worcester police officers who were called to the scene ran after the daughter, surrounding and moving her to the ground as they arrested her.
She was charged with disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest but Police Chief Paul Saucier requested a judge to dismiss her case.
August Clara Moura and her infant son moved back to Brazil in June to be with her partner, Samarone Alves Ferreira-De Souza, who was deported by ICE, according to the family lawyer, Andrew George Lattarulo.
Ferreira-De Oliveira said her adult daughter will not return to the United States, as she was frightened by what happened to her mother on Eureka Street.
More Worcester Stories
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
