Port St. Lucie man accused of posing as ICE agent to intimidate voters at Brazilian election site at Miami Dade College

A Port St. Lucie man is charged with voter intimidation after Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office detectives say he walked through a Brazilian presidential election polling site at Miami Dade College's Kendall Campus on Sunday, Oct. 4, dressed in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gear, frightening voters who feared they could be detained or deported. Danilo Alves Silva, 46, told investigators the outfit was a costume he bought on Amazon, according to his arrest report.

The arrest came on the day Brazilians around the world voted in the first round of their country's presidential election, and at the site where the Brazilian Consulate General in Miami directed tens of thousands of registered Brazilian voters from the region to cast ballots. Silva has not been convicted of any crime and is presumed innocent.

What deputies say happened

According to the arrest report, detectives with the sheriff's office Homeland Security Bureau were at the Kendall Campus when they noticed Silva pacing aggressively between campus buildings at about 2:10 p.m. He was wearing a blue ICE hat, a blue ICE raid jacket, sunglasses, a camouflage face mask, blue jeans and tactical-style boots, and he carried a handheld radio over which he reported his position, CBS News Miami reported.

The report says Silva approached multiple people who were visibly afraid that an immigration agent was interfering with their election. Some voters feared he “could potentially deport people at the site,” according to the report as quoted by WSVN. Detectives wrote that his conduct raised concerns about voter intimidation given the political climate and the high concentration of foreign citizens at the polling venue, CBS News Miami reported.

NBC 6 reported that two men, one of them filming, confronted Silva about intimidating voters, and that Silva responded aggressively before detectives stepped in.

The 'costume' explanation

When detectives questioned him, Silva denied being a federal agent and could not produce any identification, according to WSVN. He told them the outfit was a costume he had bought on Amazon, the report says.

According to the arrest report as described by NBC 6 and CBS News Miami, Silva said he first voted while dressed in Brazilian attire, then went to his car, changed into the ICE gear and returned to the polling area to “see people's reaction” while recording on his phone.

Alleged threats and bribe offer

Investigators say the encounter escalated after Silva was detained. According to the arrest report, he became agitated and told a detective that “he will regret making this decision” and that “he will come after him and everyone on scene,” WSVN reported.

Detectives also allege Silva tried to talk his way out of custody with money. NBC 6 reported that, according to the report, he told them, “I will get you paid if you let me go.”

The charges

Silva faces five charges, according to CBS News Miami and WSVN:

• Prohibited intimidation or suppression of voters
• Conspiracy to commit bribery
• Threatening a public servant to influence their performance
• Unlawful use of a police badge or insignia
• Disorderly conduct

Under Florida's voter protection law, using force, violence, intimidation or coercion to influence how or whether someone votes is a third-degree felony. The state's law on police insignia makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to wear or display the badge, uniform or other indicia of any federal, state, county or municipal law enforcement agency with the intent to make others believe the wearer belongs to that agency. The statute explicitly covers federal agencies such as ICE.

Silva was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and was issued a trespass warning barring him from Miami Dade College property. CBS News Miami reported that his bond was set at $5,650 and that a court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19.

Why the gear struck a nerve

The alleged stunt landed in a community already on edge. South Florida is home to one of the largest Brazilian communities in the United States, concentrated in Broward and Palm Beach county cities such as Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach and Boca Raton as well as in Miami-Dade, and it includes many residents whose immigration status is unsettled. Stepped-up federal immigration enforcement across Florida over the past two years has made the sight of ICE gear in a public place a source of real fear for many immigrant families.

Election day itself drew large crowds. The Consulate General of Brazil in Miami had told voters to report to Buildings R and 9 at the Kendall Campus, at 11011 SW 104th Street, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. local time, according to the Brazilian community outlet AcheiUSA. FIU's Caplin News put the number of registered voters at the Kendall site at about 40,000, described it as one of two Brazilian polling stations in Florida, and reported that some voters waited in lines of up to an hour. The consulate has estimated that about 47,000 Brazilians living in South Florida are eligible to vote.

Brazilians living abroad vote only for president and vice president. Because they are voting in a foreign election, the polling place operates under the consulate's direction rather than local election officials, but Florida's criminal laws still apply to conduct on the campus.

A tight race heads to a runoff

The first round on Oct. 4 did not produce a winner. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, finished narrowly ahead of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with roughly 47% of the vote to Lula's 45%, according to results reported by NPR and Al Jazeera. Because neither candidate topped 50%, the two will meet in a runoff on Sunday, Oct. 25.

That means Brazilian voters in South Florida will return to the same Kendall Campus site in less than three weeks, in a contest that has deeply divided Brazil's diaspora much as it has the country itself.

What's next

Silva's case will proceed in Miami-Dade County court, where the charges could be amended or formalized by the State Attorney's Office for the 11th Judicial Circuit. His next court date, according to CBS News Miami, is Oct. 19.

The sheriff's office has not said whether it will add patrols at the Kendall Campus for the Oct. 25 runoff. Detectives from its Homeland Security Bureau were already on campus when Silva was spotted Sunday, and the arrest report says they stepped in when the confrontation with voters turned heated.