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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, as part of a coalition of 22 attorneys general, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in support of litigation challenging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) policy and practice of conducting unlawful warrantless civil immigration arrests.
Under federal law, immigration officers conducting warrantless civil immigration arrests must have probable cause to believe that an individual is unlawfully present in the United States and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. However, DHS officers routinely carry out warrantless arrests without determining if the individual is an escape risk. The brief highlights the widespread harms that unlawful immigration enforcement practices have inflicted on communities across the country, including in Maryland.
“ICE’s widespread unlawful arrests in Washington, D.C. do not just affect the people they take into custody; they affect entire families who live in our nation’s capital and its surrounding communities. A Maryland mother was afraid to join her asthmatic son in a D.C. hospital because she feared being detained, while a Prince George’s County educator reported a surge in students seeking mental health support following immigration raids,” said Attorney General Brown. “We are urging the court to ensure ICE follows the law, just like any other law enforcement agency.”
Across the country, federal immigration agents have escalated their enforcement activities, disrupting communities and undermining public health, safety, education, and local economies. Maryland has seen these harms firsthand, detailed in our amicus brief in Guzman, et al. v. DHS, as aggressive immigration enforcement tactics have disrupted students’ learning, endangered physical and mental health, separated children from their families, kept workers home and customers away from local businesses, and eroded the community trust that local law enforcement relies on to keep Marylanders safe. Federal agents’ use of masks and unmarked vehicles while carrying out operations has further contributed to fear and uncertainty in affected communities.
The brief was filed in Escobar-Molina v. DHS, a case challenging DHS’s policy and practice of conducting unlawful warrantless civil immigration arrests in the District of Columbia. On December 2, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted in part a motion for a preliminary injunction.
In filing the brief, Attorney General Brown joins the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
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