Baltimore, MD – In a major victory for immigrant communities across Maryland, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has issued a preliminary injunction requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end unconstitutional and inhumane conditions there. The March 6, 2026, Memorandum and Opinion also certified a class of “all persons who are now, or will be, detained at the Baltimore Hold Rooms” and ensured that the preliminary injunction would protect all members of that class, finding that ICE has violated their Fifth Amendment rights.
These decisions allow the case to move forward on behalf of everyone who is detained in the Baltimore Holding Rooms now or in the future, while putting in place immediate, enforceable protections to ensure that conditions meet constitutional minimums during the ongoing litigation.
The judge’s order is the latest order in the federal class action lawsuit, D.N.N. et al. v. Liggins et al., filed on May 14, 2025, by the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and the National Immigration Project on behalf of two women who were unlawfully detained in inhumane conditions in the Baltimore Holding Rooms. Due to extreme overcrowding in detention facilities nationwide and arbitrary arrest quotas, ICE has begun keeping people in cage-like holding cells for multiple days, despite its own binding policies.
In granting class certification and the preliminary injunction, the court relied on ICE’s own records, declarations from people detained, expert testimony, video footage, and firsthand accounts from elected officials who have visited the Baltimore Holding Rooms. The court concluded that the inhumane conditions, taken together, “woefully fail to comport with contemporary standards of decency” and are unconstitutional punishment of people detained there.
“This decision is a crucial step toward accountability,” said Amelia Dagen, Senior Attorney at Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “ICE’s own records show that more than 3,200 people were detained in these cells in the first ten months of 2025 alone. As this case moves forward, we will work with the class plaintiffs, our partners, Maryland government officials, and the broader community to ensure that ICE complies fully with the Court’s order and that people are treated with the basic dignity and care everyone deserves.”
“ICE chose to cage people in conditions it knew were dangerous—its own officials warned of the risk of fatalities,” said Yulie Landan, staff attorney at the National Immigration Project. “They built a system of deliberate cruelty and called it enforcement. This ruling sets a critical floor of decency that ICE must now meet, and we will hold them to it.”
Contact: media@amicacenter.org, media@nipnlg.org
###
The National Immigration Project is a membership organization of attorneys, advocates, and community members who believe that all people should be treated with dignity, live freely, and flourish. We litigate, advocate, educate, and build bridges across movements to ensure that those most impacted by the immigration and criminal systems are uplifted and supported. Learn more at nipnlg.org. Follow the National Immigration Project on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads at @NIPNLG.
The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights—formerly CAIR Coalition—engages in unwavering legal defense and strategic litigation for immigrant children and adults facing detention and deportation. Everyone deserves access to due process and legal representation, and we work every day to make that a reality.