10 May 14th - May 20th, 2026 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Correctional Center in Mississippi, but was found to have “demonstrated a credible fear of persecution or torture” by a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer and was released on parole as his asylum case progressed. “When I came to the United States, when I crossed the border, I was in jail for around another 12 days,” Da Silva told New Times. “In between this time, two people go into my cousin’s house and shot him in the face. The bullet coming through seemed like the size of his nose, and coming through his neck. But he’s not dead.” Da Silva then traveled to Massachusetts to be closer to his 11-year- old daughter, who was living with his ex, before settling in nearby Maine. That’s where he met his wife, a 50-year-old U.S. citizen, becoming a stepfather to her three minor children. He has also spent quality time in nature with his daughter and started his own business. Da Silva ran afoul of ICE by missing an immigration court date. He knew only Portuguese when he entered the country, and his wife said he didn’t understand the U.S.’s complicated immigration system and failed to renew his asylum application. He didn’t realize the mistake until he was filling out post-wedding marriage paperwork at the DMV. Soon after, the couple filed an I-130 application, which allows an undocumented immigrant’s relative to petition for them to receive a green card. That application is still making its way through the system, leaving Da Silva without permanent protections when the Trump administration took power. That made the family “nervous,” his wife said. Nearly a year to the day of the beginning of the Trump administration, ICE snatched him up. Da Silva was on the phone with his wife of three years on a Tuesday morning in January when ICE pulled him over in his Ford F250 work truck. Both he and a Guatemalan worker he’d hired for the day were detained on the side of the road in Portland, Maine. ICE transported Da Silva out of Maine almost immediately and moved him to Massachusetts, then Pennsylvania and then to Louisiana, all before he was brought to AROCC. “I got an ‘I love you’ out, and then he was gone,” Alessia Da Silva told New Times. The best of the worst After 10 days at AROCC, Da Silva was transferred in early February to ICE’s Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex. Amid that transition, his wife couldn’t locate him for 72 hours. A few days into his stay in Florence, Da Silva spoke to his lawyer for the first time since his detention began. Over a phone call from the facility, Da Silva told New Times that the conditions are better in Florence, but the effects of his stay at AROCC have lingered. “He’s in the best of the worst,” Alessia Da Silva said. In late January and early February, there was a measles outbreak during Da Silva’s stay at the Florence facility. Additionally, Da Silva had lingering health issues. “I was coughing every day for a month, but was only given ibuprofen, which wasn’t enough,” he said. Last month, he picked up another cold from detainees, his wife said. Prior to his detention, Da Silva didn’t get sick easily. Now, he’s coughing and under the weather all the time. Also in early February, Da Silva developed a toothache due to an infected abscess that he said went untreated for weeks. The tooth was finally removed on April 1 after he passed out twice in the facility’s common area, his wife said. The situation mirrors that of Emmanuel Damas, a 56-year-old Haitian immigrant held in the same facility who died as a result of an untreated tooth infection in March. His wife said her husband watched Damas fall “on the floor” and “get loaded up” by staffers. The private prison company CoreCivic, which operates the Florence facility, disputed that Da Silva or any other detainee is not receiving adequate medical care. “We are committed to providing safe, humane and respectful care for everyone entrusted to us,” wrote CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin in an emailed statement, “and we take seriously our obligation to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards, and ensure that all individuals receive appro- priate and timely medical attention.” In detention, Da Silva has been fighting removal proceedings while also pursuing his I-130 petition. His attorney has also filed a habeas corpus petition in Massachusetts seeking his release, although no ruling has been issued in that case. The couple has a two-hour interview on May 19 to prove their marriage is legitimate. Because he is more than 2,750 miles away, his wife doesn’t have the means or time to travel to Florence to advocate for him in person. “He would like me to come out there when he could come out and be with me,” Alessia Da Silva said. “He doesn’t think he’d do good with a meeting and then watching me walk away.” Do you have information about this story? Contact the reporter on Signal at 623-295-9472. Shitty Conditions from p 8 Congressional candidate Elizabeth Lee holds a photo of Marcos Gaspar Da Silva at a protest outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Phoenix field office on April 23, 2026. (Morgan Fischer)
