Immigrant rights, advocacy groups sue Trump administration for ‘warrantless arrest’

Immigrant and legal advocacy groups sued the Trump administration Thursday for violating the Fourth Amendment and other laws with the they called the government’s “arrest first, ask questions later” policy of immigrant arrests.

The 56-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, accuses Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of engaging in “warrantless arrest” that sweeps up people without cause beyond the fact that they appear to be immigrants.

It said 80% of those arrested by ICE in Maryland since 2025 had no criminal convictions and that of 1,300 arrests made in Operation Safe Community, a two-week ICE enforcement surge in Maryland and Virginia last month, less than a third had criminal convictions.

The lawsuit also said that of the more than 7,ooo street arrests in Maryland since Jan. 20, 2025, the day President Donald Trump (R) was sworn in to his second term, 93% of those arrested have been citizens of Latin American or Caribbean countries, in what one attorney called racial profiling.

“Over the past 21 months, plainclothes, masked, armed, unidentified and untrained federal agents have terrorized Maryland communities,” said Shana Kader, legal director for We Are CASA, during a news conference at the group’s multicultural center in Langley Park. “From the Eastern Shore to Park Heights to the mountains of Washington County, these agents have stalked primarily brown and Black neighborhoods, arresting those they perceive to be brown or Black immigrants without warrants and without probable cause.”

“Shame!” some people yelled after Kader spoke.

Besides We Are CASA, other groups involved in the suit are the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, the ACLU of Maryland and the National Immigration Project.

Plaintiffs include three men and one woman from Maryland, three identified only by their initials. Defendants are the Homeland Security Department and its secretary, Markwayne Mullin; ICE and its acting director, David Venturella; the Justice Department and Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Representatives from ICE and Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment on the suit Thursday.

The lawsuit was filed on the same day We Are CASA announced Tiago Alexandre Sousa Martin was released from ICE custody and returned home after being shot by ICE agents in an Anne Arundel County neighborhood on Dec. 24.

And it comes less than a week after ICE agents who converged on a Frederick neighborhood were seen on video grabbing and pushing protestors in front of a house. At least one agent can be seen hitting a person on the ground with a baton, according to video provided by Hagerstown Rapid Response.

Austin Rose, managing attorney with the Amica Center based in Washington, D.C., said the lawsuit isn’t directly connected to the incident in Frederick.

“They [ICE agents] staked out a neighborhood for 40 hours, apparently looking for someone, and then some brave neighbors came and intervened,” said Rose, who was born and raised in Frederick. “It just shows what ICE is doing, which is they’re creating problems for themselves by just randomly showing up in neighborhoods.”

‘We are Maryland’

The named plaintiff, Samuel Guzmán, 24, is a Maryland native. He is also a member of We Are CASA and a resident of Anne Arundel County.

On June 7, Guzmán was detained by ICE agents after coming out of a 7-Eleven. Even though agents saw his identification and Guzmán pleaded that he’s a U.S. citizen, “the agents immediately handcuffed” him, put him in a truck and drove to a nearby parking lot along with other recently arrested “Latine” individuals.

“After finally reviewing Mr. Guzmán’s identity documents a second time, the agents returned him to the 7-Eleven parking lot and released him with no explanation,” the suit says. “Mr. Guzmán continues to take the same route to work on which he was arrested in June, and he faces substantial risk of re-arrest. He fears he or his Latine family members in the Annapolis area will be arrested in the future.”

A 38-year-old woman, identified in the suit as “K.M.,” was approached by ICE agents Jan. 12 while she parked her car near a friend’s house in Salisbury. Agents in six unmarked vehicles ordered her out of the car, “threatened to shoot her” and then handcuffed her. They detained K.M. for several hours at the Salisbury ICE office, interrogating her about her children and husband, who is deceased.

She was eventually released with an ankle monitor, “which causes her significant discomfort and shame at work and in public, and she must attend monthly ICE appointments.”

Similar incidents and fears were expressed by two other We Are CASA members Thursday, who went by their initials.

State Sen. Malcolm Augustine (D-Prince George’s) was on hand for Thursday’s announcement to at the multicultural center to express his support for the suit.

“As much as the Trump administration wants to terrorize us, as much as the Trump administration wants to hate us, we are Casa. We are Maryland, and we are America,” Augustine said. “We stand with We are Casa and all who are part of this suit for constitutional due process. We will fight together, and we will win because when we fight … ”

“We win,” chanted those in attendance.