A home daycare in Cape Cod has shuttered its doors after local news revealed a fugitive illegal immigrant from Brazil, who was wanted for child rape in his home country, was living there.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO) Boston arrested Andre Tiago Lucas, wanted for the rape of a 13-year-old child in Brazil, in Bourne in October of last year.
“It’s absolutely disgusting and shameful, and it never should have happened, but it doesn’t shock me,” Massachusetts Republican State Rep. Steven George Xiarhos told Fox News Digital. “I was a police officer for 40 years right here on Cape Cod in the county of Yarmouth, so I’m familiar with background checks. I’m familiar with people who break the law. … This never should have happened. Someone like that, first of all, never should’ve been in the country, and then never should’ve been in Massachusetts, but he was, and how did that happen?”
A Brazilian court convicted Tiago Lucas of rape of a vulnerable person in 2016 and sentenced him to serve nine years and four months incarceration, according to ICE. He then fled Brazil and made his way to Massachusetts.
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The international fugitive was living with Franciele Nunes at her home daycare in Hyannis, as Boston 25 reported as part of its investigation into Tiago Lucas.
“This never should have happened.”
Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) records reviewed by Boston 25 revealed that the agency inspected the home daycare five separate times but did not find any evidence of Tiago Lucas staying in the residence during any of those visits. Nunes had been a licensed daycare provider for three years, EEC records obtained by Boston 25 show.
ICE ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde said in a November 2024 statement following Tiago Lucas’ arrest that he “falsley” believes “he could evade justice in Massachusetts.”
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Xiarhos believes people who come to the United States and reside in Massachusetts need stronger background checks.
“It starts with [being a] secure nation, and we have to do real background checks, not just a CORI [Criminal Offender Record Information] check,” Xiahros said. “And I know how to do it. We should be cooperating with federal law enforcement. Everybody has their own job to do, but you can share and work together to be safe.”
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The state representative noted that Massachusetts is the only state in the country with a Right to Shelter law, which was enacted in 1983 in response to a homelessness crisis in the state and guarantees housing for families and pregnant women without housing.
Recently, however, an influx of migrants into the United States, combined with a lack of affordable housing options, has left the state overwhelmed with people seeking such assistance. The law has led to the creation of a vast network of migrant shelters that has cost the state upwards of $3 billion in taxpayer dollars since 2021.
“There’s all kinds of issues that were not there 40 years ago. I don’t think when that law passed that anyone envisioned thousands of people coming to Massachusetts from other countries or states,” Xiarhose said.
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Gov. Maura Healey proposed changes to the law in January, including requiring criminal background checks.
Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Mike Kennealy said in a Tuesday statement that Tiago Lucas’ apparent residence in a daycare is “the direct result of Maura Healey’s policies that make Massachusetts a sanctuary state—a place where lawbreakers know they’ll be shielded from accountability.”
“Under Healey’s leadership, our communities are endangered, and our most vulnerable—our children—are put at risk,” he said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Healey’s office for comment.
“When I’m Governor, this ends,” Kennealy said. “There will be no more sanctuary protections for fugitives. No more blind eye to public safety. I will restore common sense to Beacon Hill and make it clear: if you’re here illegally and have committed a violent crime, you will not find refuge in Massachusetts. I will expand background checks, enforce the law, protect our children, and put the safety of our communities first—no exceptions.”
It is unclear if Nunes will be facing charges in connection with Tiago Lucas’ fugitive status. Fox News Digital has reached out to Branstable police.
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