After ICE shot him and tried to tear his family apart, Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins is home
VIRGINIA – After more than eight months of detention, a federal district court judge ordered Tiago Alexandre Sousa Martins’ release from ICE custody. Today, he has been released and is finally home with his family.
“Today, we celebrate Tiago’s release and reunion with his loved ones. But our work does not end here: we remain committed to holding ICE accountable and ensuring all immigrants are treated with dignity and humanity,” said Sam Hsieh, Deputy Program Director of the Immigration Impact Lab at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights.
After the filing of a federal habeas petition by the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, We Are CASA, and Sousa Martins, a 31-year-old Maryland father, has been released from immigration custody.
“I want to express my deepest gratitude to We Are CASA. I truly don’t know where I’d be without them. They stepped in when I needed it most, not only supporting me through my own ordeal but also standing by my family every step of the way. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you,” said Tiago Sousa Martins. “Today, I can finally say I am free. It was a long and difficult battle, but I’m here to tell you that it is possible. Please, don’t ever lose hope. Don’t give up.”
On Christmas Eve 2025, Sousa-Martins left his family to go to work, and ICE followed him to a residential neighborhood in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Agents surrounded his work van with vehicles and yelled at him, ordering him to get out. Rather than de-escalating given his understandable fear and panic, agents broke his window and opened fire, striking him multiple times, including in his back and thigh. He suffered serious injuries, including a collapsed lung.
The Trump regime’s account of the incident subsequently changed after Anne Arundel County Police contradicted key details in the government’s initial description of what happened.
Instead of spending Christmas with his family, Sousa-Martins was hospitalized and suffered months of incarceration and immigration detention.
He was repeatedly deprived of adequate medical care to recover from ICE’s gunshot wounds. Yet, even after his federal criminal case concluded with a sentence of time served, he remained separated from his family as the campaign launched for his liberation continued.
Today, his family, We Are CASA, his attorneys, and an organized people-powered movement has brought Tiago home.
“This is the moment Tiago’s family has been fighting and praying for: he is home,” said Alice Barrett, Managing Attorney at We Are CASA. “Since Christmas Eve, his children have been without their father and his family has lived with the uncertainty of whether they would be together again. Today, we celebrate with them. Tiago belongs at home, surrounded by the people who love him.”