A man who is accused of stabbing his wife to death in their apartment in Massachusetts could be removed from the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) placed an immigration detainer on him.
Ilton Rodrigues, a 48-year-old citizen of Brazil, who was living illegally in Stoughton, is accused of stabbing his wife to death at their apartment in front of their two children on May 3.
His wife, 43-year-old Telma Bras, was discovered dead of apparent stab wounds when police arrived at the couple’s home at Bennett Drive, Stoughton.
At the time of the attack, the couple’s two children, a 7-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl, were at home. They were not injured in the attack, but are traumatized, police said.
Police were alerted to the fatal stabbing when the teenager called a family member after hearing a commotion at home, who then called 911.
Rodrigues could now face deportation when criminal charges against him end, as ICE has said they placed an immigration detainer on him.
“ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations lodged an immigration detainer with the Norfolk County House of Corrections on Ilton Furtado Rodrigues, a citizen of Brazil charged with murder,” ICE spokesman John Mohan wrote in an email, reported Mass Live.
“ICE will seek his removal pending the outcome of the criminal charges he faces,” he added.
ICE did not state when Rodrigues first arrived in the United States.
The 48-year-old has no criminal records and it was the first time Stoughton Police had never been called to the couple’s apartment previously, said Police Chief Donna McNamara.
McNamara added it is difficult to imagine what the two children “had to go through.”
The death is “the most tragic of results,” especially for the children, Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey told the Herald on May 4.
Rodrigues remains in police custody and is expected to appear in Stoughton District Court on June 11.
