ANNAPOLIS – Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to obtain records for an investigation into what he called “inhumane” conditions at a federal immigration holding facility in Baltimore.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to order Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to release records about conditions at the facility.
“The conditions inside the Baltimore holding cells have been dangerous, inhumane, and unlawful — and ICE and DHS have done everything in their power to keep us from finding out just how bad they are,” Brown said in a statement. “We’re taking ICE and DHS to court to expose the full scope and impact of their lawless behavior.”
The lawsuit came a day after Maryland U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, along with Reps. Kweisi Mfume, Glenn Ivey and Johnny Olszewski, all Democrats, made an impromptu visit to the ICE holding facility and described “inhumane” conditions.
“This facility is unfit, even to house animals,” Alsobrooks said Monday outside the George H. Fallon Federal Building where ICE holds detained individuals.
Brown’s office said it has been investigating a pattern of civil rights violations at the facility after testimonies and viral videos in January appeared to show overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. The office issued an administrative subpoena demanding records, including demographics of the detainees.
At the ICE Baltimore field office individuals are processed and transferred to longer-term detention facilities, DHS said in an email to Capital News Service.
“These claims that there are subprime conditions or overcrowding are false,” said an agency spokesperson, adding that detainees are provided food, water, blankets and hygiene products. “Each holding room is equipped with a phone where detainees can make phone calls to family members and lawyers.”
As immigration enforcement surged across the country and in Maryland under the Trump administration, some local lawmakers and advocates have complained the ICE detention facility in Baltimore is overcrowded.
The increase in detainees has led to a strain on the facility’s resources, according to the lawsuit.
DHS said the agency purchased a warehouse in Washington County earlier this year to use as an ICE detention facility to address the overcrowding. The attorney general filed another lawsuit shortly after the purchase to stop construction of that facility.