State of the Union Guest Had to Leave Early After DHS Threatened Him

A guest of Democratic Representative Seth Moulton at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address left midway through the speech after the Department of Homeland Security directly threatened him on social media.

Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 19, was enjoying his time in the visitors gallery in the House of Representatives, watching Donald Trump’s speech. But When Trump honored the gold medal-winning U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team, Moulton’s chief of staff Neesha Suarez escorted Gomes out of the chamber. She had seen a post from the Department of Homeland Security and worried about Gomes’s safety in a room with a heavy law enforcement presence.

The post on X, part of a thread where the department mentioned the named immigrant guests that Democratic members of Congress brought to the address, called Gomes “an illegal alien who has no right to be in our nation.”

“We are committed to enforcing the law and fighting for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens like him,” the post stated.

Gomes was detained by ICE in June while driving to volleyball practice in Milford, Massachusetts. A high school junior at the time, his arrest sparked protests in the town over the fact that he had no criminal record and took honors classes, played varsity sports, and played the drums in his church band.

The teen legally came to the U.S. from Brazil when he was six with his parents, but his visa later expired. ICE said they were looking for his father, claiming that he had a history of speeding in residential areas, including driving over 100 miles per hour. The Boston Globe only found that Gomes’s father ran a stop sign in 2023.

Gomes was released from ICE detention in Burlington, Vermont, a week after his arrest, still wearing his volleyball shorts and Crocs, and was greeted by Moulton and Representative Jake Auchincloss. He then applied for asylum.

Suarez had driven Gomes to Washington and knew that he didn’t have his phone, so she took him to Moulton’s office to watch the rest of the speech. He checked social media, texted his friends, and called his mother.

“I can’t believe they still want to chase after me,” Gomes, dressed in a gray suit, told the Globe. “I’m just disappointed in the ignorance. It’s really inhumane, and there’s a lack of empathy.”

After the speech, Moulton met Gomes in his office and told him to “keep fighting.”

“We’re obviously concerned about it, but sometimes in America, you have to do brave things,” Moulton said regarding the DHS’s post. ”Sometimes when you really believe in freedom, you actually have to risk it.... Sometimes you have to fight hardest for your country when your country lets you down.”

Gomes was happy to be in Washington, spending two days in the city, getting a tour of the Capitol, and meeting politicians such as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. Before his arrest, he wanted to be a plumber, but now he wants to be a congressman.

“Things are going so good, and then all of a sudden you remember that you could get taken at any time,” Gomes said. “I truly believe everything in my life is in God’s hands. If he wants me to be here and work for the people and help immigrants as much as I can, I’ll be here. But if he doesn’t, then I’ll go back.”