ICE Says a Bristol County Sheriff Released a Habitual Offender Three Times — Then He Was Charged With Vehicular Homicide.
- 3 Times the number of separate occasions ICE says Heriton Da Silva Aredes was released from state or local custody in Massachusetts without his detainer being honored — ICE.gov, Aug. 19, 2026
- 2008 the year Da Silva Aredes, a Brazilian national, was first removed from the United States under a June 2008 order — before illegally reentering at an unknown date — ICE.gov, Aug. 19, 2026
- 1 Day the gap between Gov. Maura Healey (D) signing the PROTECT Act restricting ICE cooperation statewide and ICE arresting Da Silva Aredes in Taunton — Mass.gov; Fox News, Aug. 2026
- July 25, 2026 the date Bristol County House of Correction released Da Silva Aredes on bail on the vehicular-homicide charge itself, without notifying ICE — ICE.gov, Aug. 19, 2026
On August 6, 2026, ICE agents arrested Heriton Da Silva Aredes at large in Taunton, Massachusetts. He is a Brazilian national who was ordered removed from the United States in June 2008, deported that October, and later illegally reentered the country at a date ICE says it cannot confirm. He is now arraigned on a charge of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation in a pending Bristol County case.
The arrest itself is not the headline. According to ICE, Da Silva Aredes had already passed through the hands of Massachusetts state and local authorities three separate times before this arrest — and each time, ICE says, he was released without his detainer being honored. Acting ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston Field Office Director David Wesling put the blame squarely on one elected official.
“Sadly, it appears as though Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux (D) followed through on his promise to not cooperate with ICE, resulting in the release of this habitual criminal illegal alien offender, who is currently charged with vehicular homicide, back into his constituents’ community,” Wesling said in the agency’s Aug. 19 release.
Da Silva Aredes’ record predates the vehicular-homicide charge by years. ICE says his prior convictions include assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, refusal to identify himself while operating a vehicle, giving a false name to police, and reckless operation of a motor vehicle. None of that record kept him out of the community for long.
ICE says the first missed opportunity came in August 2023, when Massachusetts State Police in Middleboro had him in custody and released him without honoring the agency’s detainer. The second came at the Stoughton Police Department, at a date ICE’s release does not specify further. The third came on July 25, 2026 — this time from the Bristol County House of Correction, where Da Silva Aredes was released on bail on the vehicular-homicide charge itself, without the sheriff’s office notifying ICE beforehand.
ICE’s framing is explicit: this was not one missed handoff, but a pattern, and the agency says that pattern carried a fatal cost before this case ever reached a courtroom. “On three separate occasions, this criminal illegal alien was in the custody of state or local authorities, and they released him without honoring our detainer,” Wesling said.
“Had any of the prior detainers been honored, lives would have been saved.”
Acting ICE ERO Boston Field Office Director David Wesling, Aug. 19, 2026
Da Silva Aredes remains in ICE custody as of Aug. 19, 2026, the date of the agency’s release. The state vehicular-homicide case remains open in Bristol County. Because that charge has not been resolved, Da Silva Aredes is presumed innocent of it unless and until a court finds otherwise — a status this story observes throughout, even as it reports ICE’s account of his custody history.
This is not the first time Heroux’s office has drawn ICE’s public criticism. In a separate July 2026 dispute over a different detainee, Heroux defended the same underlying policy: “Under the Lunn decision, we are not allowed to hold somebody past when the bail is posted. We have to release them,” he said, adding, “I’m not going to notify ICE because ICE routinely violates people’s civil rights.”
Heroux, elected Bristol County Sheriff in November 2022, has built his non-cooperation policy on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s 2017 decision in Commonwealth v. Lunn, which held that state and local law enforcement lack authority under Massachusetts law to hold someone solely on the basis of a federal civil immigration detainer once that person is otherwise eligible for release. Heroux has cited Lunn repeatedly as the legal basis for releasing detainees, including Da Silva Aredes, once bail is posted or a sentence is served, regardless of an outstanding ICE detainer.
Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III (D) brought the vehicular-homicide charge that put Da Silva Aredes back in the sheriff’s custody in July — the same custody from which ICE says he was released on bail without notification, for the third time.
The timing lands in the same week as a statewide policy shift. On August 5, 2026 — Gov. Maura Healey (D) signed the PROTECT Act, which bars new 287(g) agreements authorizing local law enforcement to perform federal immigration duties anywhere in Massachusetts and restricts ICE activity in courthouses, schools, and hospitals statewide. ICE arrested Da Silva Aredes in Taunton the very next day, August 6.
Healey framed the law as a check on federal overreach. “ICE is so wrong in what it’s doing and ICE needs to be stopped, here in Massachusetts and around this country, just stopped in its tracks,” she said at the signing. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell (D) has separately defended the state’s posture toward federal immigration enforcement.
These are the missing children, and we're not being helped at all by Sanctuary Cities. They're going out of their way to make sure the children remain missing! President DONALD J. TRUMP
General sanctuary-city commentary posted before this arrest — not specific to the Da Silva Aredes case. Included for policy context only.
The result is a state that expanded restrictions on ICE cooperation at almost the exact moment the agency was publicly blaming a violent-crime release — one it says was preventable — on a lack of that same cooperation.
Da Silva Aredes remains in ICE custody. The Bristol County vehicular-homicide case against him remains open and unresolved.
Heriton Da Silva Aredes, a Brazilian national removed from the U.S. in 2008 and later illegally reentered, was arrested by ICE in Taunton, Massachusetts on August 6, 2026. ICE says he had been released from state or local custody three separate times without his detainer being honored — most recently on July 25, 2026, when Bristol County released him on bail on the vehicular-homicide charge he now faces, without notifying ICE. Acting ICE ERO Boston Field Office Director David Wesling directly blamed Sheriff Paul Heroux (D), whose non-cooperation policy traces to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s 2017 Lunn decision. The arrest came one day after Gov. Maura Healey (D) signed a statewide law further restricting ICE cooperation. Da Silva Aredes is presumed innocent of the pending vehicular-homicide charge; he remains in ICE custody as the state case continues.
