"I want to thank you for your support and prayers. Your support and prayers were very important for us," Gustavo's father, Itamar de Oliveira, told the crowd of about fifty demonstrators who had gathered to support them outside the Burlington ICE field office on Tuesday. His wife, Lenice Keila dos Reis, stood alongside him.

On Friday afternoon, Gustavo was arrested by ICE agents in downtown Milford after school while he was saying hello to a friend, whose car was stopped by immigration officials, according to his family and attorney. Spooked by the masked federal agents, he started running. He was released a little more than an hour later, the family said, and asked to check in at the agency's field office in Burlington on Monday.

After a quick appointment, ICE requested that Gustavo's parents check in the next day -- causing concern among the family and their legal team that ICE was leveraging Gustavo in order to arrest his parents.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Monday that during a "targeted enforcement operation," two individuals fled from a vehicle on foot, and the "suspected target" of the operation escaped. ICE briefly detained a 16-year-old from Brazil, McLaughlin said "to determine his identity and if he was a potential safety threat, as is routine for all arrests."

"ICE does NOT target juveniles or children," McLaughlin said. "At the time of the detainment, ICE had no knowledge of the individual's age."

Gustavo is a sophomore at Milford High School, and has been diagnosed with a neurological disorder which sometimes causes him to have difficulty walking, or lose control of his legs, his family said.

The family, who is from Brazil and came to the US in 2021, lacks legal status, but is appealing a denial of their asylum case, which a judge decided earlier this year. The appeal is currently pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals, the highest administrative body for reviewing decisions from immigration judges.

On Tuesday, Gustavo's parents complied with the ICE's call for them to show up in person at their office. Their attorney had prepared them: There was a chance that one, or both of them, could be detained at this appointment. So with their lawyer and other community members, they gathered in the nearby coffee shop before the check-in, their concerns pouring out.

They couldn't afford bond, or survive on a single income. And most of all, they could not fathom being separated from Gustavo.

But the paperwork before them forced them to confront a frightening possibility. One of the documents was a caregiver authorization affidavit that would give an aunt of Reis, Gustavo's mother, the ability to care for the teen in case they were detained. Reis signed on the line, teary-eyed.

But her husband, Oliveira, remained resolute. "We're going into that office today, and we're leaving that office today," he said in Portuguese.

A religious leader led the prayer, and placed his hands on the parents' shoulders. The crowd of dozens reached their hands out towards Gustavo's parents.

"You have all of us here with you, you have angels with you, you have God with you," the man leading the prayer told them. "You are beloved, you belong here."

Later that day, they traveled to an office in Framingham, where ankle monitors were clasped onto their legs, and ordered to report back two weeks later.

"We are grateful that there is no detention, but it's a lot for this family. It feels like it just doesn't end," Jill Seeber, their attorney, said after the family's ICE check-in. "My hope now is that they can be in peace."

Parents of Milford teen arrested briefly by ICE return home after ICE check-in - The Boston Globe