MD woman held by ICE for 25 days, despite citizenship proof, gets a passport

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The Maryland woman arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in December and held for 25 days despite offering proof of citizenship has been issued a U.S. passport and removal proceedings against her in immigration court have been halted, her lawyers said in a statement Monday.

The issuance of a U.S. passport to Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales “is the most definitive proof that she, or indeed anyone, can produce to show the reality of their citizenship. And yet, this document is only verification of the truth. She was a citizen before receiving the passport, and she will remain a citizen thereafter,” said Gunther Sanabria, president of the law firm representing Diaz Morales.

Sanabria said the Department of Homeland Security filed a request last week for dismissal before the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) in the removal proceedings. But, he added, Diaz Morales’s freedom “has an asterisk attached.”

“Given that the government only agreed to closing Dulce’s case ‘without prejudice’ it indicates they maintain the position that they can resume these proceedings against her at any time,” Sanabria wrote.

Lawyers for Diaz Morales said she would not comment at this time on being issued a passport or DHS’s decision to halt removal proceedings.

DHS did not immediately respond to questions from The Post about why it requested to halt removal proceedings or whether it planned to renew removal efforts at a later date.

Diaz Morales, 22, was arrested in Baltimore on Dec. 14 while leaving a Taco Bell with her sister. Diaz Morales said she told the ICE agents and other law enforcement officials that she was born in the United States. According to her lawyers, Diaz Morales moved from the U.S. to Mexico with her family as a young child in 2009 or 2010 and returned in 2023 to escape cartel violence.

DHS officials in statements at the time disputed Diaz Morales’s assertions and said she was in the country illegally. “Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz is NOT a U.S. citizen – she is an illegal alien from Mexico,” then-DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement in December. “She did NOT provide a valid U.S. birth certificate or any evidence in support of her claim that she is a U.S. citizen.”

McLaughlin left the department in February.

Four days after Diaz Morales was arrested, a Maryland District Court judge barred the government from deporting her while the court considered a petition from her lawyers challenging the detention. During her 25-day detainment, she was transferred often and held in detention centers in Maryland, Louisiana, Texas and, finally, New Jersey. Her lawyers said they were only able to speak to her twice during that period.

Diaz Morales was released from ICE custody on Jan. 7 after her lawyers filed additional documents with EOIR to support their client’s citizenship claim, such as records from her birth in a Maryland hospital that included her footprints and her mother’s fingerprints. They also provided clearer versions of her Maryland birth certificate and immunization records, which they had previously provided to the court and DHS.

On the day of her release, Diaz Morales said she was looking forward to seeing her 5-year-old son and the rest of her family.

“Now that I am free, I feel much better, but while I was detained, the lows were really low and I felt very sad, but I thank God now it’s over,” Diaz Morales said, speaking in Spanish with her lawyer interpreting. “I want to hug my son first and then my family.”

A week later, at her first check-in with ICE, she was placed in an ankle monitor before being allowed to leave.

In his statement, Sanabria said his client’s case should be seen as a warning.

“We, like many other advocacy groups and legal service providers, drastically fear the erosion of rights and safety under the current policy regime,” he wrote. “This case has loudly proven that you are only legal until the government says otherwise.”

Joe Heim joined The Washington Post in 1999. He is a staff writer for the Metro section.