She Was Arrested By ICE On Nantucket, Shipped To Texas, And Now Faces Deportation

Since first coming to Nantucket in 2023, Lara Batista-Pereira had been working as a landscaper, babysitter, and dog-walker. She left her home in Brazil and crossed the southern border into the United States in search of a better life, her father said. But her time on the island came to an abrupt end this spring when Batista-Pereira was among the 12 people who were taken into custody during the May 27th Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on the island.

That morning, Batista-Pereira, 31, was driving a landscaping truck on Miacomet Road when she was pulled over by two unmarked vehicles and arrested by federal agents. Handcuffed and shackled, she was marched onto the Coast Guard boat Hammerhead along with 11 other individuals and taken to a detention center in Burlington, Mass. She was the only woman among those arrested on Nantucket during the ICE raid.

Since that day, Batista-Pereira was subsequently transferred to the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center in Karnes City, Texas, where she remains in custody.

“She was part of the community, and very loved,” said her friend Karina on Nantucket. “And she had no criminal record. They (ICE) were looking for someone else. She kept saying, “I’m not that person, I’m not that person.’ But they took her.”

Batista-Pereira’s father, Girlei, remains on Nantucket. Speaking through an interpreter at his mid-island apartment, he told the Current that he has been able to talk to his daughter a few times since she was arrested, but he was surprised when she called and told him she had been moved to a detention center in Texas.

“I’m worried because I don't know if Texas is worse for her or not,” he said. “She’s down and depressed. I’m also in bad shape, not sleeping well. It’s hard not to think about.”

Girlei said he and his daughter traveled together from their home in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and came to Nantucket because they had friends who were already living on the island.

“We were looking for a better life,” he said. ”I don’t know what will happen now.”

On Monday, two months after her arrest on Nantucket, San Antonio Immigration Court judge Thomas Crossan denied a request from Batista-Pereira’s attorney to set bond, stating he did not have jurisdiction to do so. She now faces removal from the United States, according to her attorney, Blaise Odhiambo.

The Current observed the hearing in the San Antonio Immigration Court remotely via Webex. Crossan allowed the “highly unusual” media request after Batista-Pereira and her attorney did not object to the Current’s request.

“The court finds that the respondent (Batista-Pereira) was apprehended in the San Diego Border Patrol sector soon after entering the United States, apprehended without a warrant, and then released,” Judge Crossan said during the hearing. “Under matter of Q. Li, this court has no authority to grant a bond. I’m denying the bond request.”

Crossan was referring to a May 15, 2025, Board of Immigration Appeals decision that clarified the scope of mandatory detention under the Immigration and Nationality Act. It implements mandatory detention for those arrested and detained without a warrant when arriving in the United States, and prohibits them from requesting bond from an immigration judge during removal proceedings.

Batista-Pereira and the other 11 people arrested by ICE agents and federal authorities on Nantucket on May 27th were among 1,461 individuals taken into custody in Massachusetts that month in what has been dubbed "Operation Patriot," part of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Of the 1,461 who were arrested, 277 had been ordered to be removed from the United States by an immigration judge, and 790 had "significant criminality," according to Patricia Hyde, the acting field office director for ICE Boston.

While Batista-Pereira was indeed present in the U.S. illegally, she had not committed any criminal offenses since she arrived in the country, according to her friends and family. Her arrest on Nantucket appears to fall into the category of so-called “collateral arrests” by ICE - people who are not the specific target of an immigration enforcement operation, but get swept up in it nonetheless.

During a press conference in June, Hyde described why a significant number of the individuals taken into custody during Operation Patriot were likely collateral arrests.

"Sanctuary policies put us in a position to go out into communities and look for people," Hyde said. "When jurisdictions don't cooperate with ICE and we don't arrest people custodially, in custodial arrests, then we must go out into the community. And when we go out into the community and we find others who are unlawfully here, we are going to arrest them. We've been completely transparent with that."

Attorney Blaise Odhiambo, who represented Batista-Pereira during Monday’s immigration court hearing, had hoped that she could have been released on bond, but now acknowledges that outcome is unlikely following the judge’s decision.

“Why this case is so frustrating - she was arrested and detained, and then scheduled to appear in a court in Massachusetts,” Odhiambo said. “While the case was pending, she was moved and transferred to Texas…There’s no reason someone like Lara should be in detention. She has no criminal record, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So she was victimized twice. Once, when she was transferred to Texas, and second, the new ruling came in when she was in detention, and now she’s no longer eligible for bond.

"As for Lara’s current options, she is in a very difficult position," he added. "Because she did not apply for any form of immigration relief upon her prior release, and no relief is currently available to her, she now faces the likelihood of a removal order. Her only remaining options may be to accept a removal order or request voluntary departure."

While Odhiambo awaits word from the immigration court in Texas regarding the next step in Batista-Pereira’s case, her father continues to live and work on Nantucket, holding out hope that she may somehow be able to return.

“I have hope that she can have another hearing and try not to be deported,” he said. “Because she loves it here and was trying to build a future here.”