Maryland’s attorney general is asking a federal judge to force the Trump administration to hand over documents that it has so far refused to release in response to an ongoing civil rights probe into a federal immigration holding facility in Baltimore, adding to tensions over the administration’s enforcement efforts in the state.
In court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland, Attorney General Anthony G. Brown alleged that conditions at the George H. Fallon Federal Building in Baltimore are dangerous and unsanitary, with dozens of immigrants having been crammed into a single, cold cement room for days at a time with no bedding, no showers and one toilet.
“The Trump administration has been holding human beings in conditions that shock the conscience,” Brown said at a news conference Tuesday. “Where cells built for short-term detention have become something far, far worse.”
In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said claims of overcrowding and poor conditions are “false.”
Detainees “are provided food, water, blankets, and hygiene products,” the statement said, adding that each holding room is also equipped with a phone to make communication with family members and attorneys possible.
A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement deferred to the DHS statement.
Maryland state leaders have challenged several aspects of the administration’s ramped-up immigration enforcement efforts, with lawmakers banning 287(g) cooperation agreements between local law enforcement and ICE and Brown’s office suing to stop the agency from converting a warehouse in Washington County into a detention facility for as many as 1,500 people.
Democrats in Maryland have also mounted a transparency campaign over allegations of crowding and mistreatment at the Baltimore holding facility, among several such facilities around the country that have had problems with crowding amid the administration’s escalated arrests. Members of the congressional delegation have made frequent visits to the Baltimore site — at times getting turned away. On Monday, they inspected the facility during an unannounced visit but were shown an empty room and given no information about where the detainees usually held there had been taken.
That visit came after a federal judge overseeing a separate lawsuit related to the troubled facility had ordered ICE to limit the number of detainees there to 56 people — the facility’s capacity. Officials have alleged that as many as 120 were held there in a single day.
“We cannot stand by as ICE and the federal government continue to lack transparency and dodge accountability for their cruel and unlawful immigration enforcement actions,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said in a statement.
The Baltimore facility serves as a holding cell for immigrants who are being processed and awaiting transport to a federal detainment facility outside the state. Stays inside such facilities are usually limited to 12 hours, although a waiver issued by ICE last year extended that limit to 72 hours. Maryland law prevents ICE officials from holding detained immigrants in state prisons and local jails, and DHS currently has no functional federal detention centers in the state.
That could change if DHS is able to successfully stand up the planned facility in Washington County, a sprawling empty warehouse that the Trump administration hopes to convert into a detention center capable of holding as many as 1,500 people.
The attorney general’s office launched its civil rights investigation into conditions at the Baltimore processing facility in January after a video reportedly taken inside went viral online.
Investigators sent an administrative subpoena to DHS and ICE officials on Jan. 30, demanding access to records about detainee demographics, holding cell conditions and other legal information about those being detained.
The records, the attorney general’s office argued, would inform its probe into allegations that detainees are being held for too long in overcrowded and unsanitary cells and denied access to medical care, food, water and legal counsel. Nearly a month later, on Feb. 25, federal immigration officials denied the request in full.
Brown then decided to escalate the request to federal court, where a judge will evaluate whether DHS and ICE violated the Administrative Procedure Act in refusing to hand over any of the records. Those documents should be made available upon request, Brown said, citing federal regulations.
“The administration stonewalled us at every turn,” Brown said Tuesday. “They missed their own deadline. They rejected our subpoena outright with boilerplate objections and no real answers.”
Detainees at the Baltimore holding facility have equated meals to dog food and said they were given blankets covered in feces, lice, urine and vomit, according to Brown’s lawsuit.
One diabetic detainee, Brown said, was denied insulin for so long that they suffered a medical crisis. Another person with a brain tumor was held for more than 10 days and denied a medical appointment and medication needed, the attorney general alleged.
Brown said his investigation looks to understand the extent of the “deplorable, despicable, and unlawful conditions” there to protect residents.
“Every one of these detainees is someone’s parent or someone’s child, someone’s spouse, someone’s neighbor, someone’s friend,” Brown said. “They are human beings and every one of them has been trapped in a nightmare. These are not isolated incidents, and this is not new.”
When asked about next steps if the court grants him access to the documents, Brown said his office would “follow the evidence” and review the documents to understand the pattern and practice of treatment and conduct in the facility.
Any violations, Brown said, would lead his office to take appropriate actions dictated by its authority to protect Maryland residents.
The suit was filed against ICE and its acting director, Todd M. Lyons, as well as DHS and outgoing secretary Kristi L. Noem, who President Trump replaced last week with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma).
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