Any mother adores getting phone calls from her children. For Josiele Berto, they are now a lifeline and the only way to know where her 13-year-old son is and what he’s facing alone.
“I only talk to him – never to any official who could explain what kind of place it is or what’s happening,” Berto told CNN, speaking in Portuguese.
Last Thursday, she was called by police in Everett, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb, who said her son Arthur had been arrested. She was told she needed to pick him up.
But Berto left the police station without Arthur that night.
After waiting in the station for more than an hour, an officer informed her Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already taken him away.
“They didn’t give me any information,” said Berto, who is from Brazil and along with her family have had a pending asylum application since arriving in the United States in 2021. “I asked where he was being taken, and they said they weren’t allowed to say.”
Berto and her attorney, Andrew Lattarulo, both told CNN they spent days waiting to learn what led to the arrest – information that finally came Tuesday afternoon.
Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria said in a news conference a teenage boy – whom he declined to name because he is a juvenile – was arrested last week after Everett Police received a “credible tip” ac
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