An illegal immigrant convicted in his home country of Brazil for murder was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Massachusetts the same week Gov. Maura Healey made law a bill that restricts the federal agency’s capabilities in the state.

ICE Boston tells the Herald that agents arrested Maycon Souto Dos Reis, wanted by Brazilian authorities for murder, for which he was convicted and sentenced to 14 years and three months in prison in that country. Brazilian officials issued an arrest warrant for Dos Reis on September 14, 2024.

It’s unclear if he had begun his sentence and escaped, or fled prior to the start of his sentence.

“This is yet another example of what the media often characterizes as a non-criminal, when in reality, many of these individuals are murderers, sexual predators, gang members and more,” said acting ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston Field Office Director David Wesling. “They simply do not have a criminal record in the United States. We will continue to pursue these dangerous criminal aliens that sanctuary politicians fight to protect.”

ICE Boston says officers apprehended Dos Reis during “targeted operations” at Westborough District Court on August 3. Dos Reis was apprehended following his arraignment on charges stemming from his May 29 arrest in Southborough for allegedly driving without a license. ICE says the Southborough arrest put Dos Reis on the agency’s radar.

“If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, arrest you, and you will never return. Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States,” ICE Boston said in a written statement.

The agency says Dos Reis entered the United States illegally on June 7, 2024, and was released into the country during the President Biden years.

The apprehension of Dos Reis by ICE came just two days before Gov. Healey signed the Protect Act into law, which prohibits civil immigration arrests without a judicial warrant at schools, courthouses, childcare centers and medical facilities, among other state owned property.

It also requires all employers to notify any illegal immigrant employees ahead of a pending I-9 inspection by the Department of Homeland Security, and bans state and local law enforcement from entering into any new deputization agreements with federal immigration authorities, “except in narrow, criminal-law-focused arrangements that meet additional safeguards.”

“Today, we the people of Massachusetts are standing up and fighting back because we know what we need to do. We know that what ICE is doing is wrong, and it needs to stop,” Healey said to a packed room at La Calaborativa in Chelsea before singing the bill.

“Moms ripped from their cars while kids are watching. People who’ve been working here in Massachusetts, working hard, paying taxes for years, are being put on planes, and sent far, far away. Innocent people shot and killed, U.S. citizens stopped and detained, peaceful protesters arrested. This is what ICE is doing to our people and our neighborhoods,” she said.

Prior to the signing ceremony, Healey called for ICE to “keep their vehicles out of Boston,” in response to media reports the agency is seeking 250 parking spots in the city. The plan, Healey said in a press release, is one “we absolutely cannot allow.”

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu echoed Healey’s call against ICE obtaining the parking spaces in her own statement.

DHS slammed Healey and Massachusetts lawmakers for passing the bill, signed as an Emergency Preamble and took effect immediately, saying Beacon Hill is “putting politics above public safety.”

“When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities. Seven of the top 10 safest cities in the United States cooperate with ICE. Instead of working with us, Massachusetts lawmakers are choosing to RELEASE violent criminals from their jails directly back into our communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims,” a DHS spokesperson told the Herald in a written statement. “Sanctuary politicians must stop putting politics above public safety.

Dos Reis will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of deportation proceedings.