ICE Check-In Arrest: UMD Valedictorian Faces 2021 Order

An ICE check-in arrest in Baltimore has put a University of Maryland student and her mother in immigration detention in Louisiana, and the government’s case rests on a removal order an immigration judge issued more than five years ago. Maria Flores Garcia, the 2026 valedictorian of Parkdale High School in Prince George’s County, went with her mother to a scheduled appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and did not come home, according to reports by FOX 5 DC, NBC4 Washington and WBAL-TV. The Department of Homeland Security says she has a final order of removal and will stay in custody until she is deported.

The case matters beyond one family because it shows a rule that many people with old removal orders do not fully grasp: showing up for every check-in protects no one from arrest once the government decides to carry out the order.

What DHS says, and what remains unknown

Only one outlet has published the government’s account. FOX 5 DC reported that, according to DHS, Garcia entered the United States illegally at an unknown time, was arrested in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley in December 2016, was placed in removal proceedings and released, and was ordered removed by an immigration judge in February 2021. She came from El Salvador as a child, at age 9 according to NBC4 and WBAL, and studies public health at Maryland on a scholarship.

Her boyfriend, Cesar Saavedra, told NBC4 and WBAL that officers at the Baltimore appointment asked whether she wanted to stay with her mother or leave, and that she was detained minutes after choosing to stay. Both women are now held in Louisiana, NBC4 and WBAL reported; ICE had not responded to either outlet.

Several facts that would shape her chances are not public: whether the 2021 order was entered after a hearing or in absentia, whether it was appealed, what her mother’s status is, and whether any application was ever filed for her. The university said it is working to provide resources. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a statement quoted by WBAL that the detention “puts a clear lie to ICE’s claim that they are going after ‘the worst of the worst,'” and that he is seeking her release.

Why a check-in can end in custody

People with final removal orders who are not detained are typically released under an order of supervision and told to report to ICE on a schedule. Those appointments are not a form of status: under section 241 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, ICE may detain a person with a final order to carry it out, and a scheduled check-in is the easiest place to do it. Similar check-in arrests include the detention of a San Diego third-grader at a check-in, the arrest of an I-601A waiver holder before his consular interview, and the Haitian boy taken into custody after his uncle brought him to an ICE office.

DACA is not a likely way out. The program requires continuous residence since June 15, 2007. If DHS is right that she was first encountered in December 2016 and she came at age 9, she arrived years after that cutoff and would not qualify even if the program were taking new applicants.

The legal paths left, and their limits

With a final order in place, the realistic tools are narrow. A motion to reopen in immigration court generally must be filed within 90 days of the final order, a deadline that passed in 2021. The statute carves out exceptions, chiefly an asylum claim based on changed conditions in the home country and, for orders entered in absentia, a claim that the person never received proper notice of the hearing. A lawyer can also ask ICE for a stay of removal on Form I-246, or ask the immigration court for a stay alongside a motion to reopen. ICE’s decision is discretionary.

Federal court is harder ground. Section 242(g) of the INA bars district courts from hearing most challenges to the government’s decision to execute a removal order, so a habeas petition usually attacks the detention itself rather than the deportation. The transfer to Louisiana matters here: a habeas petition generally must be filed where the person is held, so a federal court in Louisiana, not Maryland, would likely hear any challenge to her custody.

The Associated Press reported on Nov. 11 that arrests are continuing nationwide after the election, and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin wrote after the vote that “deportations will continue,” in line with the White House vow of no post-midterm slowdown. Cases like this one, involving a high-achieving student with a years-old order, are likely to become test cases for the oversight Democrats have promised when they take control of Congress in January. That attention may shape how ICE handles individual cases, but the legal standard for removing someone with a final order does not depend on it.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds an LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Diego and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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