NewsPublished: Sep. 14, 2026, 8:52 a.m.By Charlie McKenna | cmckenna@masslive.comA Boston federal judge on Friday ordered the release of a man held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ruling that an ICE arrest report alone was insufficient to justify his detention and citing “repeated misrepresentations” that called the agency’s credibility into question.U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy found Eleandro Almeida de Souza had credibly rebutted ICE’s account of his detention, such that the agency’s report was not enough to detain him as a flight risk. Murphy went a step further, ruling that the agency was no longer entitled to the “presumption of regularity” — a legal doctrine that gives public officials and government agencies the benefit of the doubt.“This Court is under the disheartening impression that, at best, ICE takes cursory steps to ensure that its statements are truthful, and, at worst, has a culture of outright lying to further its litigation positions,” wrote Murphy, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden in 2024.Murphy added that a “litany of deception and outright falsehoods ... have infected ICE’s representations to this court and others.”According to court filings, de Souza, a Brazilian citizen, entered the United States in September 2019 and was detained by immigration officials. He was released shortly afterward and has lived in the U.S. since. Court records state that he has no criminal convictions and is not subject to a final order of removal.After his detention on Aug. 14, de Souza sued federal officials, asking a judge to order his immediate release and challenging the lawfulness of his detention. Murphy granted de Souza a bond hearing, at which an immigration judge ordered him detained after finding him to be a flight risk.De Souza challenged the immigration judge’s decision, arguing that the judge wrongly relied on ICE’s account of his detention in a Form I-213, which is essentially a police report. On Aug. 14, according to ICE, agents pulled de Souza over and identified themselves as “ICE” and “police” while wearing body armor with the acronym displayed. De Souza stopped his car, then opened the door and ran, leading to a chase, according to the report.But de Souza’s lawyer offered a very different account of the arrest.De Souza’s lawyer said his client wasn’t pulled over, but “violently cut off” by one car and pinned by several others, none of which had sirens or emergency lights flashing. The stop was “so aggressive” that de Souza didn’t know what was going on and jumped out of his car because he was afraid. According to de Souza, he was arrested as he walked back toward his car — not running.The description offered by de Souza “adequately rebutted” the account provided by ICE such that the report alone was not enough to keep him detained, Murphy ruled.In a footnote, Murphy added that while it wasn’t his role to determine which account was more credible, de Souza’s description “disturbingly ... aligns with accounts of other arrests undertaken by ICE,” including that of Rümeysa Öztürk.ICE to buy robot dogs from Boston Dynamics in $1.3M contractMass. immigrant group: White House claim of$1B in cuts a ‘PR move’Trump attacks ‘backstabber’ GOP congresswoman in 14 brutal postsUnidentified officers seen detaining a man in West Springfield video‘Random’ Mass. ICE detainments continue for 3rd consecutive day on South ShoreCharlie McKenna is a reporter on the public safety team at MassLive. Based in Boston, he covers the entire state. Before joining MassLive, McKenna worked for The Daily Item, where he covered Saugus, and on The...