ICE detained 14-year-old Brazilian girl in parked car in Marlboro, Mass.; held overnight without guardian

On March 11, 2026, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained a 14-year-old Brazilian girl who held an expired visitor visa while she sat in a parked car outside Bethel Presbyterian Church in Marlboro, Massachusetts. She was held for roughly 10 hours at the JFK Federal Building in Boston, then transported overnight to a detention facility in New York without an appropriate guardian present.

U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered her immediate return to Massachusetts on March 12, saying that in 22 years on the federal bench he had never encountered a case of agents detaining a juvenile solely because no appropriate guardian was present. She was reunited with her U.S.-citizen aunt on March 13.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defended the detention through Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis, who characterized it as a "rescue." Attorneys with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts argued in court that officers acted out of concern for the girl's safety after determining she had no familial relationship to the vehicle's other occupants. The girl's attorney, Andrew Lattarulo, disputed that account, saying he believed the stop was actually intended to locate her father, and said he intends to pursue refugee status for her. U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) said the detention was "not immigration enforcement" but "the targeting of a child."