Maryland Immigrants Sue ICE Over Thousands of Warrantless Street Arrests
Immigrant rights group CASA and four Maryland residents filed a class-action lawsuit accusing ICE and DHS of arresting people without warrants or probable cause nearly 7,000 times since early last year.
Immigrant advocacy group CASA and four Maryland residents filed a class-action lawsuit this week accusing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security of running an unconstitutional "arrest first, ask questions later" operation across the state.
The suit, detailed by the Washington Post, alleges ICE agents have made close to 7,000 street arrests in Maryland communities since January 2025 without first securing a warrant or making an individualized determination of probable cause — as required, plaintiffs argue, before agents can lawfully detain someone based on suspected immigration status.
The Numbers
According to WTOP's reporting, roughly 80% of people arrested by ICE in Maryland since 2025 had no criminal convictions. The lawsuit also points to Operation Safe Community, a two-week ICE enforcement surge across Maryland and Virginia last month, in which fewer than a third of the roughly 1,300 people arrested had criminal records.
ARREST FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER
The complaint seeks class-action status on behalf of two groups: people who have already been arrested without a warrant, and those who could be in the future. Plaintiffs are asking a federal judge for a temporary injunction barring ICE from continuing warrantless arrests in the state while the case proceeds.
Legal Precedent
Maryland Matters notes the filing leans heavily on a similar case out of Washington, D.C., where a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in December requiring ICE agents to make an individualized determination of a person's flight risk before making a warrantless arrest. CASA's attorneys argue the same constitutional logic should apply in Maryland.
What's Next
Neither ICE nor DHS has issued a substantive public response to the specific allegations in the Maryland complaint. The administration has defended its immigration enforcement posture broadly, arguing aggressive street-level arrests are necessary to enforce federal law. A hearing on the request for a temporary injunction is expected in the coming weeks, and the case is likely to become a bellwether for similar warrantless-arrest challenges being weighed in other states.