# ICE sent her 2,000 miles from home > Maryland's ban on detention centers forces ICE to transfer immigrants across the country, separating them from families and lawyers. - Title: ICE sent her 2,000 miles from home · The Banner | Shortify - Summary: Maryland's ban on detention centers forces ICE to transfer immigrants across the country, separating them from families and lawyers. Maryland's successful… - Keywords: ice detention, maryland, immigration enforcement, trump administration, deportation, family separation, detention transfers, immigration law, habeas corpus, dignity not detention act, guatemala, withholding of removal - Source: The Banner — https://thebanner.com/politics-power/national-politics/ice-immigrant-detention-transfers-maryland-trump-PQA4EWDZPRCMHIDX6FCLMEY4MI - Author: Daniel Zawodny,Sahana Jayaraman - Published: 2026-09-17T09:30:00+00:00 - Read time: 5 min - Topics: ice detention, maryland, immigration enforcement, trump administration, deportation, family separation, detention transfers, immigration law, habeas corpus, dignity not detention act, guatemala, withholding of removal ## A routine check-in becomes detention D.N.N., a 37-year-old Guatemalan woman, walked into a Baltimore ICE office on May 7, 2025 for a routine appointment she'd attended for over a decade. This time, agents shackled her and locked her in a holding room for three days without proper facilities. ## First stop: New Jersey After three days in Baltimore, D.N.N. was transferred to Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. She spent a month there, making brief phone calls to her husband and daughter back in Maryland while her nephew drove three hours for Sunday visits. ## Shackled and flown to Texas After an escape attempt at the New Jersey facility, masked ICE agents loaded D.N.N. and other detainees onto a plane. She woke up in a massive tent in the Texas desert, 2,000 miles from home, her family, and her lawyer. > Somewhere bad ## The desert tent facility D.N.N. spent two weeks in a cramped room with 23 other women in an air-conditioned tent near the Mexican border. The facility didn't have her diabetes medicine, and the substitute medication left her feeling frail. ## New Mexico and legal battles A short van ride brought D.N.N. to New Mexico, where she would spend most of her detention. While held there, her legal challenge over Baltimore conditions became a class action lawsuit, and her lawyer filed a habeas corpus case seeking her freedom. ## Released but stranded In March, a federal judge ruled D.N.N.'s detention unlawful and ordered her release. ICE dropped her at El Paso airport without her driver's license, leaving her to find her own way home 2,000 miles away. ## Maryland's detention center ban Maryland outlawed the use of local jail beds for ICE detention in 2021 through the Dignity Not Detention Act. The state also sued to block construction of an ICE facility near Hagerstown and banned local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. ## The unintended consequence With no long-term detention beds in Maryland, ICE transfers detainees across greater distances than in most other states. A Banner analysis found Maryland detainees are typically transferred more than 1,200 miles, roughly the distance from Baltimore to southern Louisiana. ## Trump's unprecedented deportation campaign Under President Trump's mass detention efforts, ICE has made transferring people thousands of miles away standard practice. In July, the agency launched 1,363 flights, more than double the busiest month under President Biden. ## Maryland detainees sent farther than ever During Trump's second term, ICE detained more than 8,300 people in Maryland, six times as many as any similar period since 2022. Today, 94 percent are transferred out of state, with roughly one in five sent to neighboring states and the rest to Louisiana, Washington, and Florida. ## Other states face the same problem Illinois, Oregon, Connecticut, and Delaware also have no long-term detention facilities. Over the last two years, immigrants in these five states were transferred more often and moved a median distance roughly seven times that of people in states with long-term facilities. ## ICE calls transfers logistical necessity ICE says transfers are based on bed space, medical needs, and other factors. The agency claims it ensures detainees can attend court proceedings, often virtually, but declined to say who makes transfer decisions or how. ## Weaponizing detention, critics say Some attorneys and experts accuse the Trump administration of using long detentions and multiple transfers to punish detainees and scare others into self-deporting. ICE denies that transfers are weaponized against those it detains. > Can we make things really, really difficult for people, and then they may opt to ... self-deport? ## Lawyers struggle with distance Immigration attorneys in Maryland once drove to nearby facilities like Frederick or Jessup. Now they face drives to Louisiana, Texas, and California. Getting documents signed and meeting with clients has become painstaking, making legal defense nearly impossible. ## Habeas corpus petitions surge Lawyers are filing constitutional writs of habeas corpus in federal district court to challenge unlawful detention. Use of these petitions in immigration cases has exploded since last year, but transfers to distant states make the strategy less likely to work. ## One man transferred 17 times A Pakistani man arrested in Maryland in April 2025 was transferred 17 times in less than a year, including three trips back to the same Pennsylvania facility. By his conditional release, ICE had moved him 11,347 miles. ## Baltimore holding room overcrowded Detainees are supposed to spend no more than 12 hours in Baltimore's ICE holding room, but ICE granted itself a waiver. The facility has grown overcrowded with people spending days without beds or showers. A federal judge limited capacity after a lawsuit. ## D.N.N.'s life before detention D.N.N. had lived outside Frederick for 13 years, working in retail and cleaning houses. She learned to steam crabs, took family trips to Ocean City, and felt free for the first time after an immigration judge granted her withholding of removal status in 2012. ## Separated from her daughter While detained in New Mexico, D.N.N. learned her 4-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with autism. The girl appeared distant during video calls, and D.N.N. feared her daughter was forgetting her during the 10-month separation. ## Reunited at last When D.N.N. walked through her front door after nearly a year in detention, her daughter ran into her arms shouting 'Mommy!' Her immigration case remains unresolved, and she faces uncertain health and financial prospects. > Mommy! ## Key takeaway Maryland's successful effort to block long-term ICE detention facilities has backfired, forcing the agency to transfer detainees thousands of miles away, making legal defense nearly impossible and devastating families.