ICE Detains Maryland Mother With No Deportation Order In Latest Episode of Controversial Deportation Attempt

A Maryland mother was forcefully taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with no order of deportation, a key requirement to kick off deportation proceedings. The case is the latest sign of the Trump administration willing to bend the law in the name of its mass deportation goals.

Elsy Berrios, a Salvadoran migrant, was driving in her neighborhood with her daughter when two men who looked like ICE agents approached her car. The encounter was recorded by her daughter, and it showed one of the men asking Berrios to step out of her vehicle, providing little information for their presence or why she is being taken into custody.

The two women insisted that the officers must show an order of deportation, which they did not provide. Eventually, as Berrios refused to get out of the car, one of the men proceeded to break her window, open the door, and forcefully take her out of the driver seat.

"Don't worry my love, I'm okay," Berrios told her crying daughter, who continued recording the incident, as she was being handcuffed by the two men.

Berrios is an asylum seeker who also holds a work permit allowing her to work for any employer in the U.S., her lawyer told Noticias Telemundo. At the same time, the Salvadoran woman has no criminal record.

The woman was transported to an ICE Detention Center in Pennsylvania, according to Noticias Telemundo. On April 14, she has a court hearing that will determine whether she is freed or will remain in the detention center.

Berrios' case is the latest indication that the Trump administration is willing to bend the laws in efforts to fulfill their mass deportation promises.

In March, Chicago civil rights lawyers filed a motion suggesting ICE made illegal arrests, lacking proper warrants and, in at least one of the 22 cases, without probable cause.

The attorneys argue this violates the Nava Settlement, a 2018 class-action lawsuit permitting ICE to make a warrantless arrest only if agents have evidence of probable flight risk.

Similarly, the administration invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, which has been accused of violating human rights.

Just last week, the administration admitted in a court filing to accidentally deporting a Maryland father to CECOT due to an "administrative error," arguing that he could not be returned because he's now in Salvadoran custody.

That court filing, first reported by The Atlantic, appears to mark the first time the administration had admitted an error related to its recent deportation flights to El Salvador. "On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, [Kilmar Armando] Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error," the court filing read.