NOTE: The following Op-Ed is being distributed for Seth Aitken for Bristol County District Attorney

ICE Was There to Protect Taunton. No One Let Them

If Massachusetts agencies had simply notified ICE before releasing Heriton Da Silva Aredes after any of his prior arrests, he would have been in federal custody instead of behind the wheel on Court Street; cooperation that costs nothing would have prevented the crosswalk killing.

Here is the story.

 

Heriton DaSilva Aredes is a Brazilian national with a substantial record of criminal convictions who previously entered into the United States illegally and was removed by Immigration in 2008.

 

From 2023, when he was arrested for driving without a license, until recently, Heriton DaSilva Aredes was apparently living in Taunton.

On the morning of November 20, 2024, Mr. Aredes was driving a borrowed motor vehicle, accelerated in front of a school bus on Court Street by the Taunton Green and killed a pedestrian in a cross walk. He was charged with Motor Vehicle Homicide in August 2025 and scheduled to be arraigned in Taunton District Court in November 2025.

 

Mr. Aredes did not show up for his arraignment. He was arrested on a default warrant more than a month later and, following that arraignment, was held on $2,500 cash bail. For the next seven+ months, unable to make bail, Mr. Aredes was held at the Bristol County House of Correction while his case progressed in the Taunton District Court. Mr. Aredes was transported to court in custody on July 23, 2026 and two days later, somehow posted bail and was released from the House of Correction. Despite a federal immigration detainer having been filed with the Bristol County Sheriff, the Sheriff elected not to notify immigration officials that Mr. Aredes had posted bail and released him back into society.

He was taken into custody by ICE on August 6, 2026.

 

Recently, Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heorux has claimed that Massachusetts law prevents his office from complying with Immigration detainers. While politically convenient, this is untrue. The Sheriff cites the 2017 court case of Lunn v. Commonwealth as cover for his decision to ignore ICE. The Lunn case stands for the proposition that law enforcement, including court officers, are prohibited from holding an individual solely on the basis of a federal civil immigration detainer.

 

An immigration detainer requests two things from any law enforcement agency holding someone in custody: 1) 48 hours of additional detention to give immigration officials time to arrive and take the person into custody or 2) advance notice before a person is scheduled to be released. While the Lunn case prohibits compliance with the first request – extended detention, nothing prohibits a sheriff’s department from giving courtesy notice to ICE before an alien subject to removal is released back into the public.

 

The Bristol Sheriff’s Office could have easily and lawfully given Immigration officials notice that Mr. Aredes was arranging to make bail. Instead, the Sheriff chose to take a progressive political stand by ignoring the immigration detainer and putting the public at risk. Mr. Aredes’ criminal record was available to the Sheriff. The Sheriff knew Mr. Aredes had killed someone with a car and he knew that when given the opportunity, Mr. Aredes would very likely disappear and not show up to court. Most importantly, the Sheriff would have known that Mr. Aredes had been previously removed from the United States and had re-entered, a felony under federal law.

 

Perhaps, most important of all, the Sheriff was very likely aware that in the years preceding Mr. Aredes’ motor vehicle homicide charge, he had been arrested several times by different Massachusetts law enforcement agencies and each time, either in defiance or ignorance of an immigration detainer, was released before ICE could respond. Had any of those agencies honored the detainer, if only to give ICE sufficient notice of Mr. Aredes’ imminent release, the man who Mr. Aredes killed in that Taunton crosswalk might still be alive.

 

Here, knowing all that – fully aware of the harm that could have previously been avoided with a modicum of cooperation and communication – the Bristol County sheriff still followed through on his promise to ignore ICE efforts and released Heriton DaSilva Aredes to an unsuspecting public.

 

Whether motivated by politics or arrogance, the Sheriff’s choice only served to make Bristol County less safe and serves as a startling example of what can happen when progressive politicians care more about indulging their hatred of conservative ideals than they care about their sworn duty to protect the innocent.

 

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