Trump vs. Massachusetts: Brazilian child rapist in home day care ICE flashpoint

Joe Dwinell, Boston Herald on May 10, 2025

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BOSTON — The governor is being called out for the “appalling” case of an illegal immigrant child rapist found at a Cape Cod home day care.

It’s a startling arrest, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration argued Friday night, that dates back to the waning months of the Biden presidency that’s now being highlighted as Massachusetts, Boston, and sanctuary cities are targeted by the Trump administration.

“This is truly an appalling story,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Friday afternoon. “We had a convicted child rapist who illegally entered our country under (President Biden) living in a home day care. … That is what Joe Biden’s open borders did to our country.”

Leavitt said it’s “one case of many” of “sanctuary policies” in Massachusetts that has ICE working hard in the Bay State. A top ICE official recently told The Boston Herald the agency is preparing for a second “surge” in Greater Boston.

“How many more child rapists and convicted murderers are hiding in Massachusetts?” Leavitt added on the Howie Carr radio show.

Healey repeated that Massachusetts is “not a sanctuary state.” A statement Leavitt disagreed with, adding that the Bay State is a magnet for an “unbelievable amount of murderers and rapists, sexual predators … fleeing to Massachusetts knowing it is a sanctuary for them.” The state’s right-to-shelter law that clearly drew migrants here is undergoing “significant changes,” the governor has said.

This latest salvo from the Trump administration comes as grants — from Harvard University to Boston — are pulled or threatened.

The governor’s team hit back Friday night, saying, “As a former prosecutor and Attorney General, Governor Healey believes strongly that violent criminals should be deported.”

A spokeswoman from the state Department of Early Education and Care echoed that sentiment.

“It is unacceptable that this child care provider lied about who was living in her household. As soon as the Department of Early Education and Care was made aware that an individual arrested by the Biden administration in October 2024 had been living with a child care provider, we immediately launched an investigation and closed the program,” the Herald was told.

The agency added that the provider had given “false and misleading information and intentionally hid (the rapist’s) presence from the agency. She is no longer allowed to provide child care in Massachusetts.”

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Brazilian national Andre Tiago Lucas ran from a nine-year sentence for rape of a 13-year-old girl and ended up the home that once doubled as a day care. He was arrested in Bourne this past October and deported.

“This Brazilian fugitive has been convicted of a heinous crime in his native country, said acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde of ERO Boston. “Rather than face the consequences for his actions, he chose to flee, falsely believing he could evade justice in Massachusetts.”