A coalition of prominent legal advocacy and civil rights organizations has initiated federal legal action against the Trump administration, alleging that federal authorities have implemented an unconstitutional pattern of warrantless arrests aimed at individuals perceived to be immigrants throughout Maryland.
The 56-page complaint, submitted to the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, argues that federal immigration officers have systematically breached Fourth Amendment protections and other statutory standards. According to the legal filing, federal enforcement operations have relied on a strategy characterized by plaintiffs' attorneys as an "arrest first, ask questions later" approach, apprehending community members without adequate justification.
Central to the lawsuit is the claim that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have routinely detained individuals solely on the basis of their perceived immigrant status. Among the named plaintiffs in the litigation is Samuel Guzman, a native Marylander and United States citizen who was intercepted and seized by immigration agents after exiting a 7-Eleven store. Guzman was detained despite attempting to present identification and repeatedly asserting his citizenship, an ordeal that advocates say underscores the persistent peril of profiling and wrongful re-arrest faced by local residents.
The legal challenge arrives against the backdrop of an intensive federal enforcement campaign that has unfolded over the past 21 months, beginning on January 20, 2025, when President Donald Trump assumed office for his second term. The complaint asserts that during this period, federal authorities have carried out more than 7,000 street-level detentions across the state of Maryland.
Lawyers behind the suit emphasized data revealing that an overwhelming majority of those targeted by immigration authorities possessed no prior criminal record. The court filing documents that approximately 80 percent of individuals detained by ICE in Maryland since 2025 had no criminal convictions, undermining claims that enforcement actions are narrowly tailored to threats against public safety.
Furthermore, the legal documents allege widespread racial profiling within federal enforcement efforts, noting that 93 percent of the thousands of people arrested on Maryland streets were nationals of Caribbean or Latin American nations. Legal counsel argued that this extreme demographic concentration demonstrates that officers have unlawfully utilized race, ethnicity, and apparent national origin as primary indicators for stops and detentions.
The lawsuit highlights recent multi-jurisdictional enforcement initiatives, including "Operation Safe Community," a concentrated two-week immigration surge conducted across Maryland and Virginia during the preceding month. That operation yielded roughly 1,300 detentions; however, court records indicate that fewer than one-third of the individuals apprehended during the blitz had any criminal convictions on their records.
The broad legal effort is led by four major advocacy bodies: We Are CASA, the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, and the National Immigration Project. These organizations came together to file the suit on behalf of a group of affected residents seeking systemic relief from unlawful detentions.
During a press briefing held at We Are CASA’s multicultural facility in Langley Park, legal director Shana Kader sharply criticized the operational tactics employed by federal enforcement personnel. Kader detailed how plainclothes, masked, armed, and unidentified agents lacking appropriate training have maintained an aggressive presence across diverse Maryland regions over the past 21 months, drawing cries of "Shame!" from community members attending the announcement.
Kader emphasized the wide geographic scope of these operations, stating that enforcement units have established surveillance and carried out stops across the Eastern Shore, through Baltimore's Park Heights neighborhood, and extending into the mountainous terrain of Washington County. She stated that these agents have systematically patrolled predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods, arresting individuals perceived to be immigrants without obtaining judicial warrants or establishing probable cause.
The litigation names several high-ranking administration figures and federal entities as defendants. These include the Department of Homeland Security and its secretary, Markwayne Mullin; Immigration and Customs Enforcement alongside its acting director, David Venturella; and the Department of Justice led by Attorney General Todd Blanche. Spokespersons representing ICE and Homeland Security did not provide responses to formal requests for comment regarding the litigation on Thursday.
The plaintiff roster includes four Maryland residents—consisting of three men and one woman—with three of the individuals proceeding under their initials in court records to protect their privacy. Each plaintiff outlines distinct instances of being stopped and detained by federal agents without sufficient legal basis or suspicion of criminal wrongdoing.
The filing of the case coincided with the announcement by We Are CASA that another Maryland resident, Tiago Alexandre Sousa Martin, had been released from immigration custody to return home to his family. Sousa Martin had been held following a December 24 encounter in Anne Arundel County where he was shot by federal immigration agents in a residential neighborhood.
The legal action also follows closely behind a contentious incident in Frederick, Maryland, where video documentation provided by the group Hagerstown Rapid Response showed immigration agents confronting protesters outside a residential home. The recorded footage captured federal personnel forcefully pushing and grabbing demonstrators, with at least one officer observed striking an individual on the ground using a baton.
Addressing the broader context of the litigation, Austin Rose, a managing attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, clarified that the newly filed federal complaint is not solely focused on the specific altercation in Frederick. Instead, Rose explained that the legal action addresses widespread, routine practices wherein agents stake out local communities and execute detentions without the constitutional thresholds required by federal law.
The case before the U.S. District Court in Baltimore seeks to curtail these practices, asking the federal judiciary to intervene against warrantless immigration sweeps and enforce strict adherence to constitutional standards regarding search, seizure, and reasonable suspicion.
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