Baltimore, MD – The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and the National Immigration Project filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of two women detained unlawfully and in inhumane conditions in holding rooms at the George Fallon Federal Building in Baltimore, Maryland. Due to extreme overcrowding in ICE detention facilities nationwide, ICE has resorted to keeping people in cage-like holding cells for multiple days, despite its own formal policy limiting confinement to a maximum of 12 hours.
People trapped in these holding cells have been denied access to food, blankets, mattresses, showers, and medical care. They are forced to endure punitive and unconstitutional conditions of confinement for prolonged periods. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, seeks to halt this unlawful practice. The prolonged use of these holding cells appears to have become a key part of ICE’s Maryland enforcement strategy and is likely used in other jurisdictions as well.
“ICE’s detention crisis is of its own making, and instead of releasing people they don’t have the capacity to detain, they are systematically caging people for many days in cruel, unconstitutional, and life-threatening conditions that even their own policies prohibit,” said Adina Appelbaum, Program Director for the Immigration Impact Lab at Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “This lawsuit is critical to stopping ICE from one of its most egregious abuses of power and ensuring that no human being is subjected to this inhumane, animal-like treatment that has no place in the United States.”
“We are seeing a policy of ‘detain first, think later’ when it comes to immigration enforcement, and it’s leading to systematic violations of people’s rights in the interest of meeting quotas,” said Sirine Shebaya, Executive Director at the National Immigration Project. “The overcrowding, unlawful detention, and inhumane conditions in the holding cells are just another outcome of that dragnet approach. The courageous women in this case should never have been detained in the first place, and the cruelty and harm they are experiencing must be stopped.”
Plaintiffs in the case include two long-time Maryland residents who were detained at a routine ICE check-in and subjected to these unconstitutional conditions. The lawsuit names the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE, the Attorney General, and key officials responsible for overseeing detention operations as defendants. Plaintiffs assert multiple legal claims, including violations of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and due process protections under the U.S. Constitution.
The conditions in Baltimore’s ICE holding cells represent a fundamental violation of constitutional and human rights. Without immediate court intervention, people will continue to suffer in facilities ICE itself has deemed unsuitable for anything beyond short-term use. This lawsuit is part of the broader efforts of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and the National Immigration Project to challenge systemic abuses in the immigration detention system and to ensure that individuals are treated with dignity and fairness under the law.
Class Action Complaint for Declaratory Relief
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Erin Barnaby, media@amicacenter.org
Arianna Rosales, media@nipnlg.org