Maria Flores Garcia sighed as she took her place at the podium to address her high school classmates this spring. In minutes she would receive the diploma that signaled the start of her adult life. First, though, she had to get through her valedictorian speech without crying.
Her path toward the stage she commanded was “far from easy,” she told the crowd watching her. She described “starting over” at 9 years old, struggling to understand homework assignments in a language she didn’t know.
“This achievement is the product of the long hours worked by my father and the sacrifices made by my mother,” she said in Spanish, fighting back tears before switching to English, “who, like many parents supporting us here today, had to leave behind their country with nothing, and work hard day after day to give us everything.”
On Thursday, six months after she delivered that speech, Garcia was detained with her mother, Mirna Cabrera, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during a routine immigration check-in in Baltimore. The 19-year-old University of Maryland student is being held at an ICE detention center in Louisiana, according to Garcia’s boyfriend, Cesar Saavedra. Her loved ones fear she and her mother will be deported to a country where they know no one.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Garcia’s arrest and said that she “illegally entered the U.S.” and was placed in removal proceedings in 2016. In 2021, an immigration judge issued a deportation order against Garcia, according to the agency.
“She will remain in ICE custody pending her removal from the United States,” the statement said. “This administration will not ignore the rule of law.”
According to Saavedra, Garcia came to the United States from El Salvador as a 9-year-old in 2016. In 2021, she and Cabrera were granted a withholding of removal under the Conventions Against Torture, barring deportation to their home country.
DHS did not respond to questions seeking confirmation of deportation protections granted to Garcia. Since February 2025, the Trump administration has pushed a third-country removal policy, deporting thousands of migrants to countries where they are not citizens.
As a student at Parkdale High School in Prince George’s County, Garcia was an international baccalaureate student, National Honor Society member, soccer player and volunteer for PeerForward, a nonprofit aimed at educating youth in under-resourced communities, according to PHS salutatorian Mahlet Mulugeta, who introduced Garcia’s graduation address. The speech was captured on a video shared on social media. Garcia worked two jobs during the school year and was a camp counselor in summer, Mulugeta said.
Garcia’s friends told The Post that she is studying public health and hopes to become an emergency room doctor (inspired by the TV show “Grey’s Anatomy”). They described her as a driven, relentlessly positive person.
“She’s never down,” said Jamie Zavala, who met Garcia in their high school’s international baccalaureate program. “She’s always happy about something, always giggling about something.”
Zavala said Garcia takes after her mother, who is a family friend. “Maria is this amazing person because of how she grew up,” she said. “Her role models were her father and her mother.”
A fundraiser started by Saavedra to pay for Garcia and her mother’s attorney costs has raised more than $30,000 as of Tuesday evening.
Several Maryland lawmakers have condemned Garcia’s arrest and called for her release, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D), who said that “out-of-control ICE operations continue to wreak havoc on our communities.”
“Detaining Maria Flores Garcia — a former high school valedictorian and current student at the University of Maryland — puts a clear lie to ICE’s claim that they are going after ‘the worst of the worst.’ They are not. They are going after whoever they please, and it’s clear they’re not making our communities any safer,” Van Hollen said in a statement Tuesday.
In a statement, Prince George’s County Executive Aisha N. Braveboy (D) said she was “outraged and deeply concerned by Garcia’s arrest,” calling her and her mother law-abiding residents who were detained while complying with a legally required check-in.
“Maria and her mother should know they are not alone: the people of Prince George’s County stand firmly with them,” Braveboy said. “We are calling for Maria’s immediate release and safe return home.”
The morning she was detained, Saavedra said, Garcia sat in the cafeteria of the drab federal building waiting for her mother. These annual check-ins had become a routine part of their life in this country. So after two hours, when her mother had still not reappeared, she knew something was wrong.
“Why is it taking so long?” Garcia texted Saavedra, he recalled.
It was likely nothing, he told her, “probably just a longer process or a long line.”
But she had to be certain. She went to look for her mother, Saavedra said.
Instead, she found immigration officials, who told her she could either leave the building or go with her mother, according to Saavedra. “I’ll go with my mom,” she told them, not knowing her mother had been detained, Saavedra said.
U-Md. learned that Garcia was taken into custody by federal immigration enforcement on Monday, Jordan Dunklee, a university spokesperson, said in a statement. The university has been in touch with “individuals close to our student,” she said, and is working to connect Garcia’s “loved ones with elected officials.”
“Our thoughts are with our student and their family and friends,” Dunklee said. “Every member of our Terp family matters.”
Veronica Pineda met Garcia when they were in third grade. She recalled a teacher bringing a new student into the classroom and pairing them together. Both girls had recently moved to the U.S. and became quick friends. “We’re basically sisters now,” Pineda said.
Pineda said she has spoken with Garcia several times since she arrived at Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana.
Garcia has complained of small meals and a lack of medical attention for sick detainees, but has also tried to remain upbeat for her and her mom. “They’re trying to find the light in it because you can’t just let something like this take you down,” she said. “They have to fight so they can go home.”
When Garcia learned she was her high school valedictorian, she cried tears of joy as her classmates cheered, according to a video Zavala shared with The Post.
Later, during her valedictorian speech, other graduates near Zavala teared up, too.
“We’re here today not because our journey was perfect and easy, but because we refuse to quit,” Garcia said in May from the graduation stage in her cap and gown. “Remember that our dreams don’t have limits or borders.”
Angie Orellana Hernandez contributed to this report.
The post She gave a valedictorian speech in the spring. Now, she could be deported. appeared first on Washington Post.
