Detainees at the Baltimore Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office are reportedly being held for a week or longer in an office building never designed for long-term detention, according to immigration attorneys who have spoken with former detainees and their families.
As the number of immigrants being detained has skyrocketed due to the Trump administration’s push for mass arrests, facilities around the country are faced with overcrowding and inhumane conditions. In Baltimore, detainees have been forced to sleep on the floor, denied access to showers, and refused critical medical care, according to immigration advocacy organizations CASA and Amica Center for Immigrants Rights.
“People are being thrown into cages for prolonged periods and denied basic necessities, including medical care,” Ama S. Frimpong, CASA’s legal director, told Baltimore Beat. “We are hearing from families who say their loved ones were held incommunicado, without access to medication, and forced to sleep on the floor in overcrowded conditions.”
“We have seen cases where individuals with diabetes, HIV, and hypertension were denied access to life-saving medications,” Frimpong added. “Family members who tried to deliver prescriptions were turned away.”
After a March 10 social media post by Amica Center for Immigrant Rights first exposed the inhumane conditions inside the Baltimore ICE facility, activists quickly mobilized.
The Free State Coalition, a recently formed grassroots group that aims to protect democracy and the rule of law, called for a protest with support from the Baltimore Rapid Response Network, a group of community organizers that support local residents engaged with movement building efforts.
About three dozen protesters rallied outside the ICE field office in downtown Baltimore on March 14, chanting, “Down, down with deportation! Up, up with liberation!” and holding signs that read “Don’t deport our families” and “Asylum is a human right.”
Organizers argued that the Trump administration is scapegoating immigrants to deflect attention from its deeply unpopular gutting of social programs to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy. Polls show 60% of voters disapprove of Trump’s deep cuts to government programs and mass layoffs of federal workers. Across the country, Republican lawmakers are facing angry town halls, where constituents demand answers for their support of Trump’s policies.
“Trump and his billionaire allies like Elon Musk are using immigrants as a smokescreen while they dismantle the government and rig the system in their favor,” said Sergio España, an organizer with Baltimore Rapid Response Network. “They’re gutting agencies meant to hold them accountable, making it easier to dodge taxes and loot public resources. This isn’t just about immigration — it’s about eroding democracy itself while distracting the public with fear mongering.”
Along with demanding immediate relief for detainees, local activists are calling for sweeping changes to state and federal immigration laws to protect immigrant communities.
“No one should be treated this way — every human being deserves dignity,” said Franca Muller Paz, a Baltimore public school teacher and member of the Baltimore Teachers Union executive board, who called for the immediate release of the detainees.
“No one should be treated this way — every human being deserves dignity.”
Franca Muller Paz, a Baltimore public school teacher and member of the Baltimore Teachers Union executive board
“If ICE doesn’t have the facilities to handle this, then let these people go home to their families,” Muller Paz added later.
The situation in Baltimore, where ICE in February arrested at least three cooks at HomeSlyce pizzeria in Mount Vernon, reflects a broader national trend. The store’s manager, who identified himself by his first name Ziya, said ICE agents came into the restaurant, gathered information from the kitchen staff, and took three employees away in handcuffs. Since the arrests on February 6, Ziya said he has not heard from the detained workers. The restaurant has been struggling with a staffing shortage, forcing the remaining employees to work significantly longer hours to keep operations running.
With the administration ramping up deportations, ICE has struggled to find space to detain the growing number of people it is arresting. Instead of securing proper facilities, the agency is cramming detainees into makeshift holding spaces like the Baltimore field office, which lacks beds, medical services, and proper sanitation.
Organizers have emphasized that this is a manufactured crisis — one created by the Trump administration.
In order to deliver on his campaign pledge to deport millions of “criminal” immigrants, the Trump administration has imposed arrest quotas on ICE field offices and used high-profile, made-for-TV immigration raids to arrest over 33,000 people during his first 50 days in office.
However, living in the U.S. without legal status is a civil offense, not a criminal one. And according to an analysis of government data by Axios, less than 0.5% of cases in immigration courts — just 8,400 out of 1.8 million nationwide — include alleged crimes.
To increase arrests, ICE has begun detaining anyone they suspect of being undocumented, including asylum seekers and spouses of citizens who are on the path to becoming citizens. New directives allow ICE to raid “sensitive” locations such as hospitals and schools.
U.S. citizens and legal immigrants have been caught up in the arrest frenzy.
Advocates say such “indiscriminate” mass immigration raids cause deep harm to communities.
“These mass arrests create a climate of fear where people are afraid to go to work, attend school, or even seek medical care,” said Eric Lopez, deputy program director with Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “It’s not just undocumented individuals who are affected — entire families and communities, including those in mixed-status households, are living under constant threat.”
“These mass arrests create a climate of fear where people are afraid to go to work, attend school, or even seek medical care.”
Eric Lopez, deputy program director with Amica Center for Immigrant Rights
To protect public safety and prevent local law enforcement from acting as an extension of ICE, Maryland passed the Trust Act in 2022. Widely known as “sanctuary laws,” these measures aim to rebuild trust within communities by restricting cooperation with immigration enforcement — except in cases when they have signed warrants from a judge — and prohibiting federal authorities from detaining immigrants in local jails.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has stated local law enforcement won’t shift their focus to enforcing immigration law or be required to ask detainees about their legal status. Baltimore Police Department officers are not allowed to ask residents about their immigration status.
As ICE detentions surge, federal officials have blamed Maryland’s restrictions for the overcrowding — rather than acknowledging that mass arrests are fueling the crisis. In response, advocates are pushing for additional protections through legislation the Maryland General Assembly is now considering.
The proposed bills include the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (SB0828), which would bar ICE from conducting enforcement actions at schools, hospitals, courthouses, and places of worship in Maryland.
The Maryland Data Privacy Act (SB0977) aims to prevent ICE from accessing local and state agency data without a warrant. Meanwhile, the Maryland Values Act (HB1222) seeks to end 287(g) agreements, which allow local police to act as ICE agents.
As advocates highlight the real-world harm of Trump’s immigration crackdown, some media outlets are amplifying his administration’s talking points and using fear-driven narratives to justify mass detentions.
Right-wing news outlets like the Sinclair-owned Fox45 Baltimore have long amplified dehumanizing narratives falsely linking immigration policies to crime, despite research that shows counties with protections for immigrants have lower crime rates.
At the March 14 rally, activists pushed back against these narratives. One protester, who declined to give their name, said they attended because they witnessed the struggles of immigrants firsthand through their work at an immigration law firm.
“The idea that people are coming here the ‘wrong way’ is completely false,” the law firm employee said. “Our clients spend thousands of dollars trying to navigate the system, yet many don’t realize it can take more than 20 years to get through the legal process. I have the ability to be here, so I will continue to use my voice for my community.”