A Brazilian national convicted of aggravated murder walked free in Massachusetts for months — and two days after ICE finally caught him at a courthouse, Gov. Maura Healey signed a law that would have made that arrest harder to execute.
The case of Maycon Souto Dos Reis lays bare the lethal logic of sanctuary policy: politicians build walls around courthouses, schools, and hospitals to block federal immigration enforcement while convicted killers live among citizens. Dos Reis, 54, was convicted of aggravated murder in Brazil on September 14, 2024, and sentenced to over 14 years in prison. Instead of serving that sentence, he fled, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in June 2024, was apprehended — and then released into the country under Joe Biden's border policies, according to ICE.
He was arrested August 3 during a targeted ICE operation at Westborough District Court. The agency says Dos Reis first came to their attention after a May 29 arrest for unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in Southborough. A convicted murderer, living in Massachusetts, caught driving without a license — and local authorities apparently never flagged him for deportation.
Two days later, Healey signed the PROTECT Act, which bars ICE from courthouses, schools, childcare centers, hospitals, and healthcare facilities. The law also bans new 287(g) cooperation agreements between local and federal authorities and allows civil rights claims against government officials, including ICE agents. The very location where Dos Reis was arrested — a courthouse — would become a shield under the new law.
Acting ICE ERO Boston Field Office Director David Wesling didn't mince words: "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: 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."
Healey framed it differently. "The PROTECT Act is the strongest law in the country to protect people from ICE, because no one should be afraid to send their child to school, seek medical care or fear reporting a crime or appearing in court," she wrote in her August 5 statement. She added: "It makes us all less safe. So we are getting ICE out of our courthouses, schools and hospitals."
The governor's own words concede the tradeoff. The question is who bears the risk. Dos Reis had no criminal record in the United States — only a murder conviction in Brazil. Under the framework Healey just codified, a courthouse is off-limits to ICE, meaning someone like Dos Reis, facing minor local charges, could come and go without federal interception. ICE characterized Massachusetts as a jurisdiction where local policies already complicate federal efforts to locate and arrest immigration offenders. The PROTECT Act writes that complication into state law.
Dos Reis remains in ICE custody pending deportation proceedings. Both outlets noted that ICE did not provide details about the murder case in Brazil — when the killing occurred or the circumstances of the conviction.
Here's the open question: How many convicted murderers, rapists, or violent felons from other countries are currently walking American streets with no U.S. criminal record, precisely because sanctuary policies ensure ICE can't get to them before the next crime happens?
