Overview
- Plaintiffs led by We Are CASA and partners filed Guzman v. DHS and announced the case at a Baltimore rally Thursday, seeking class certification and an order that ICE stop making warrantless immigration arrests without individualized probable cause.
- The complaint says ICE follows an “arrest first, ask questions later” practice that uses unmarked vehicles, boxed‑in stops and mass detentions and that those tactics disproportionately target Brown and Black neighborhoods.
- Named plaintiff Samuel Guzman is identified as a U.S. citizen who says he was detained in an Annapolis 7‑Eleven parking lot in June despite repeatedly telling agents he was born in the United States.
- DHS rejected the allegations, saying claims of racial profiling are “disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE” and asserting ICE has arrest authority under 8 U.S.C. 1357; the agency is expected to respond in court in the coming weeks.
- Plaintiffs point to a December 2025 D.C. injunction that curbed similar warrantless arrests there and say they hope a Maryland ruling would limit comparable ICE tactics statewide and change how agents conduct pre‑arrest probable‑cause assessments.