SALISBURY, Md. - A new federal class-action lawsuit is challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest practices across Maryland, with several allegations tied directly to Salisbury and other communities on the Eastern Shore.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 9 in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, accuses ICE and other federal officials of routinely making warrantless immigration arrests without first determining whether a person is unlawfully in the country and whether that person is likely to flee before a warrant can be obtained. The plaintiffs argue that practice violates federal law and, in some circumstances, the Fourth Amendment.
The lawsuit names four individual plaintiffs along with CASA, Inc., Among those four is a Wicomico County woman identified in court documents only as K.M.
According to the complaint, K.M. is a 38-year-old woman who has lived in Maryland for about 20 years and has two U.S. citizen children. The lawsuit says she was parking near a friend's home in Salisbury on Jan. 12, 2026, when six unmarked vehicles carrying ICE agents surrounded her.
The complaint alleges the agents took her Maryland driver's license, ordered her out of the vehicle, threatened to shoot her, and handcuffed her before investigating her immigration status or ties to the community. The lawsuit says she was held for several hours at the Salisbury ICE office before being released with an ankle monitor.
The filing says K.M. remains subject to monthly ICE appointments and has changed parts of her daily routine because she fears being arrested again. It says she later took a job north of Salisbury in an effort to spend less time downtown, where her arrest allegedly occurred.
The Eastern Shore is cited several other times in the suit.
The complaint points to the July 2025 arrest of Pastor Daniel Fuentes Espinal in Easton as another example of community members “being hunted.” As WBOC has previously reported, Fuentes Espinal had purchased supplies at a Lowe's and was heading to work when ICE agents arrested him. The complaint says he had lived in the United States for 25 years, had two U.S. citizen children, and operated a construction company. Espinal has since returned to his family in Easton.
The filing also focuses on recent immigration enforcement involving Maryland's Haitian community.
According to the complaint, attendance at a predominantly Haitian church in Salisbury dropped by more than half in early August 2026 following the end of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. The lawsuit alleges ICE arrests involving Haitians increased sharply on the Eastern Shore, including people traveling from their homes to jobs at poultry plants.
Plaintiffs argue these incidents are part of a broader pattern across Maryland. The lawsuit alleges ICE has adopted what they call an "arrest first, ask questions later" policy in which agents make warrantless arrests without specific findings of probable cause.
Under federal law, immigration officers may make certain warrantless arrests if they have reason to believe a person is in the country in violation of immigration law and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. The plaintiffs argue ICE has failed to make those required determinations before arrests.
The lawsuit also includes data that it says shows ICE made nearly 7,000 warrantless or "at-large" arrests in Maryland between Jan. 20, 2025, and Aug. 6, 2026. The plaintiffs cite that number as evidence that the challenged arrest practices extend beyond isolated incidents.
The lawsuit seeks to represent two statewide classes of people who have been or could be arrested without warrants and without probable-cause determinations regarding either their immigration status or their risk of escape. Plaintiffs are also asking a federal judge to declare the alleged practices unlawful and block ICE from continuing them. They are also asking the court to order ICE to remove ankle monitors and other conditions of release imposed on K.M. and another plaintiff.
“Over the past 21 months, plain-clothed, masked, armed, unidentified and untrained federal agents have terrorized Maryland communities from the Eastern Shore to Park Heights, all the way to Washington County. These agents have indiscriminately stalked neighborhoods, arresting community members whom they perceive to be Brown or Black immigrants without warrants and without probable cause. This is racial profiling,” said We Are CASA’s Legal Director Shana Khader. “This violence waged on working class Black, Latine, Afro-descendant, indigenous, and immigrant Marylanders must be stopped. This is illegal and is unacceptable. That is why We Are CASA along with Amica Center, ACLU of MD, and National Immigration Project took to the courts to defend the Constitutional rights of Marylanders under attack by this rogue and lawless agency that is ICE.”
The suit names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Acting ICE Director David Venturella, the U.S. Department of Justice, and Attorney General Todd Blanche all as defendants.
WBOC reached out to Homeland Security on Thursday for comment.
“Allegations that DHS law enforcement engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE,” a DHS spokesperson tells WBOC. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity. ICE has authority for lawful arrests under 8 USC 1357. Law enforcement officers use ‘reasonable suspicion’ to investigate immigration status and probable cause to make arrests consistent with the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court has already vindicated us on these practices.”
DHS says that, since President Donald Trump’s return to office, they have deported nearly 1.1 million illegal aliens and arrested over 1.1 million.
