Maryland has been no stranger to immigration enforcement, with more than 3,200 people arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2025 alone. Baltimore especially has been a staging ground for ICE activity and subsequent anti-ICE mobilizations. However, investigative citizen journalists have found information that immigration enforcement action could dramatically increase in the near future.
Project Salt Box, a 7-person volunteer team dedicated to uncovering and explaining public records of federal immigration enforcement, first reported on January 27th that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had purchased a warehouse near Hagerstown that could be adapted into an immigration detention facility housing 1,500 people.
Project Salt Box then discovered in February that DHS was planning to increase its number of Meal, Ready to Eat (MRE) orders to be delivered to ICE’s Baltimore field office. MREs are lightweight rations that are shelf-stable, usually used during military operations or emergencies. Public records found that DHS was requesting 15,000 breakfasts and 27,000 lunches/dinners marked for “Baltimore AOR [Area of Responsibility] detainees”, a 200% and 150% increase respectively from the orders made in September 2025.
Additionally, as reported by several Baltimore news outlets, there were approximately 60 brand-new, unmarked vehicles found on the top floors of the Symphony Center Garage located in Midtown-Belvedere on February 23rd. Some of them were clearly marked as ICE vehicles and equipped with special equipment. In total, the collection of vehicles cost millions of dollars. The fleet of vehicles has since been removed from the garage after community organizers made the call to expose their presence via protest.
When the Baltimore Sun asked ICE whether the Baltimore field office was expecting an influx of agents or increased immigration enforcement actions, the ICE spokesperson only spoke about the agency as a whole, saying that financial support provided by the Big Beautiful Bill Act has helped the agency expand from 10,000 agents to 22,000. Immigrant and human rights advocates worry about the direct impacts that these increased capabilities will have on Baltimore communities.
Just last week on February 28th, at least 15 community members convened in the early morning at the George H. Fallon Federal Building in downtown Baltimore. In a video from the Tanggol Migrante Movement (TMM) DMV, advocates and concerned individuals said they were bearing witness and documenting the transfer of 70+ detainees from the facility in Baltimore to Louisiana. This is the site of the notorious Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has sided with the Trump administration in allowing migrants to have their rights to due process violated. Community members documented four large passenger vehicles entering the building at 6am and leaving at 7:45am.
George H. Fallon Federal Building, the location of ICE’s Baltimore field office, is infamous for reports of inhumane treatment of detainees after a viral video showed dozens of people packed into what was said to be one of ICE’s holding rooms. Maryland Representative April McClain Delaney, who visited the facility, called conditions “heartbreaking” and “horrendous”, describing how detainees sleep on thin mats with foil blankets directly on the concrete floor. Rooms were described as containing “probably 50 people, concrete floors, a bench around the perimeter, and a makeshift bathroom in the middle that has minimal privacy.”
Community members have also noted an uptick in immigration enforcement action from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), another agency under DHS that has jurisdiction over ports of entry such as airports and seaports. As reported by a few news outlets in September, including The Retriever, there have been documented reports of cruise ship workers with valid visas being accused of crimes without evidence, detained for hours without a lawyer, and forced to self-deport back to their home countries, all in violation of their due process. A majority of these cruise ship workers have been Filipino, though other nationalities have been documented as well.
While December and January passed quietly without incident, on February 1st community organizers caught word that four Filipinos were again taken in by CBP for “visa review” and sent home with little explanation. Organizers and community members express concern that this could mark a renewal of CBP enforcement.
Despite signs pointing towards rising DHS and immigration enforcement action, on a statewide level, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed emergency bill HB0444/SB0245 in mid-February, ending Maryland’s participation in the federal 287(g) program. The 287(g) program describes formal partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE, authorizing local law enforcement to serve administrative warrants and hold detainees for transfer into ICE custody. Governor Moore, during the bill signing ceremony, said, “We will not allow untrained, unqualified, and unaccountable agents to deputize our brave local law enforcement officers. Because Maryland is a community of immigrants — it is not our weakness, it’s our strength.”
Aside from legislative action, there is increasing importance for grassroots community initiatives such as those by Project Salt Box and TMM DMV serving as watchdogs of ICE and CBP action in the city, which often occur without official announcement.
Project Salt Box has said it aims to mix “the perfect blend of awareness, data, and action.” TMM DMV has also taken the reports of rising ICE and CBP activity into action, holding a community event at UMBC on March 1st to plan how to best support the cruise ship workers and fight back against CBP’s violations of due process. Talks of legislative advocacy, press conferences, care packages, and fundraising initiatives filled the room. Despite what appears to be upcoming challenges, advocates and community members seem more than ready to face them.
Diane Esteban is a junior media and communication studies major, and a news writer for The Retriever.
Contact Diane at mesteba1@umbc.edu
