In the face of amped-up federal immigration enforcement actions, Maryland has passed more laws that aim to protect the immigrants living within its borders than most states.

Baltimore’s Hispanic and Latino residents say they’re seeing fewer Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement actions – arrests or detentions, typically – in the street than they have since President Donald Trump took office in January of 2025.

But it’s not yet clear if lawmakers’ efforts are working, immigration lawyers say, or if they’re simply driving federal immigration arrests to new venues.

Lawyers and advocates working in immigration say that ICE has moved the bulk of its enforcement actions behind closed doors – now detaining residents when they turn up for their regular check-ins or meetings with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to plead their asylum cases rather than picking them up on the street.

The Baltimore Sun reached out to ICE and USCIS to ask about the alleged change in tactic, and if the newly lowered refugee cap was in part responsible for the increased ICE presence in USCIS buildings.

“Apprehensions at USCIS offices may occur if individuals are identified as having outstanding warrants; being subject to court-issued removal orders; or having committed fraud, crimes, or other violations of immigration law while in the United States,” said USCIS Spokesman Zach Kahler.

ICE did not respond by Friday afternoon.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to deport “millions and millions” of people in the country illegally if elected. So far, he is making good on his promise, with ICE arresting more than 321,000 in 2025, more than three times the number arrested the year prior, according to the Deportation Data Project out of the University of California, Berkeley. Under his administration, deportations have ramped up as well, with the federal government even turning to “third-country” deportations to accomplish its aims.

Immigrants and their advocates have said the raids on immigrant communities are violent and overzealous, and argue that non-criminals and U.S. citizens are collateral in ICE’s raids, pointing to at least four shooting deaths of protesters, bystanders and U.S. citizens in 2026.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment by Friday afternoon.

The state of Maryland has banned federal agents from wearing face coverings while carrying out detentions, curtailed local law enforcement agencies from serving detentions on behalf of the federal government and prohibited data collectors from sharing license plate and other information with ICE.

Of the laws mentioned, two went into effect in recent months. The third, the ban on masking, won’t take effect until October.

“Some of those laws could decrease ICE’s ability to arrest people,” said the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s National Director of Government Relations Greg Chen, who has more than 20 years’ experience in immigration and refugee law.

“They are not doing the kind of mass surge operations to be as physically noticeable on the streets.”

But, he said, it doesn’t mean arrests and detentions have decreased.

Highlandtown ‘used to be packed’

Highlandtown, one of the most heavily Latino neighborhoods in Baltimore, has been particularly targeted by ICE in the past two years, with residents reporting raids daily last summer, and indeed, up until a few months ago.

It’s had a chilling effect on the neighborhood and businesses, residents and workers say.

During the lunch rush on a Tuesday in July, Franchesca’s Empanadas Café in Highlandtown, situated a few storefronts off Eastern Avenue, was empty, save one DoorDash driver waiting on an order.

“This place used to be packed,” said Leslie, a cashier at Franchesca’s who spoke under the condition that her last name not be used. “You couldn’t find a parking space. Now, there’s nobody out.”

Although she’s seeing fewer ICE detentions on the street, she said, it might be because there are fewer people to arrest. Several of Leslie’s own family members chose to self-deport back to Mexico for fear of being picked up and arrested, she said.

While she’s glad that Maryland has passed laws intended to protect people from immigration enforcement actions, Leslie said, “I wish they’d target criminals, not the people who are going to work at 7 a.m.”

Looking out the front door of Franchesca’s, you have a clear view of the supermarket Cinco de Mayo, which sits almost directly across the street. There, Leslie said, raids used to happen daily – now, they’re down to a couple days a week.

Cinco de Mayo manager Elsa said when they saw the ICE vehicles pull up, they’d lock the doors to the store, waiting hours until the federal agents left. She saw people get detained right in front of the store, some of whom were regulars. She spoke to The Sun under the condition that her last name not be used.

It’s very stressful, she said in Spanish.

Now, business is down, Elsa said, particularly so on days federal agents are out and about in Baltimore’s most Latino neighborhood. Some customers are gone for good, while others have come back after multi-week or multi-month-long detentions.

“I tell them it’s good to see them again,” Elsa said in Spanish. But she doesn’t want to ask about their experiences in detention, she added. It’s not a happy subject.

ICE arrests slowing down in public

While ICE arrests are no longer happening in full view, those who work in immigration say they are not slowing down – federal agents are just changing venue.

According to the Deportation Data Project, ICE arrests peaked in the U.S in December 2025 at more than 40,000 that month across the nation. Since then, it dropped to over 38,000 in January and about 30,000 in February. (The most recent data available on the site is pegged to February 2026.)

During those same months, the data shows Maryland reported 739 arrests in December, peaking behind the national curve in January with 830 arrests and dropping to 774 in February.

This corresponds with the decline in ICE’s presence Baltimoreans have noted in Highlandtown and elsewhere. But according to July reporting out of The New York Times, nationally, ICE enforcement actions rose this month, hitting roughly 2,000 arrests a day.

The Department of Homeland Security published detention numbers July 20 showing immigration enforcement actions increased yet again, with ICE arrests operating at a record level and the number of people held in detention increasing as well under Secretary Markwayne Mullin, now three months into the job.

As in the case of Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, the Maryland man whose fight with the Trump Administration over whether or not he should – or even could – be deported played out in national headlines, AILA’s Chen said many ICE arrests are now happening inside USCIS buildings instead of on the street.

“ICE is coordinating with USCIS and using its own check-in procedures like when somebody comes in who is on an alternative to detention protocol, such as regular check-ins or ankle monitors,” Chen said. “What we’re seeing is ICE is arresting more of those people.

“USCIS is turning them over to ICE after they check in … or denying their asylum claims and turning them over to ICE immediately.”

Data published by AILA in 2025 indicates that in USCIS offices, it’s a regular occurrence for immigrants attending an asylum meeting or completing a regular check-in to instead be arrested and detained under the expedited removal procedure, as happened to Ábrego García.

Simultaneously, the number of asylum cases being granted approval has dropped precipitously, hitting record lows according to data out of the Washington, D.C., nonpartisan immigration policy think tank Migration Policy Institute.

The ceiling for asylum case approvals in fiscal 2026 is set at 7,500, the lowest in the program’s history. While the ceiling has ebbed and flowed over the years, when the modern refugee resettlement program was launched in fiscal 1980, the initial refugee admissions ceiling was set at 231,700.

The number of refugees resettled through the program is typically below the legal cap, too, the Migration Policy Institute noted.

‘Throwing resources at the wall and seeing what sticks’

Victoria Francis is the deputy director of state and local initiatives with the American Immigration Council. Her team oversees work with the business community and with communities on integration, and tracks legislation related to immigrants or immigration.

Since the start of 2026, Maryland, along with New York, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut and Virginia, approved laws that require ICE agents to go without masks as they carry out arrests and other immigration enforcement actions.

Maryland has also curtailed local law enforcement agencies from collaborating with ICE and stopped states from sharing DMV and other data with federal agents.

In 2026, Francis said her organization has seen states introduce what she called “innovative measures” to curtail federal agents in their communities, such as cutting tax incentives for airlines deporting detainees, prohibiting local law enforcement from hiring former ICE agents, or requiring the state to ensure the return of anyone unlawfully deported from within its borders.

While not all the measures have passed, “states are really just throwing all their resources at the wall and seeing what sticks to protect immigrants — or at least put sand in the gears of ICE,” she said.

The laws aimed at data privacy and non-cooperation with ICE are most impactful, she said.

“The federal government is using both of those tools for their mass deportation agenda,” she said. “Masked agents are certainly very concerning to see in your community, but some of the reasons those officers are ending up in communities are because of levels of cooperation or use of voter rolls, DMV records, massive data-sharing contracts to figure out where these immigrant communities might be.”

Day laborers see fewer raids

At the Baltimore Home Depot on Eastern Avenue, just down the road from Highlandtown, day laborers also say the raids that used to happen daily or near-daily have dropped to once a week, maybe less.

Luis is one of the men who stands at the entrance to Home Depot, looking for work on days his boss doesn’t call. (He spoke to The Sun under the condition that his last name not be used because he is not a U.S. citizen and fears deportation.) Last week, in that very parking lot, ICE agents arrested a day laborer. Luis wasn’t there, he said, but he saw the video on Facebook.

Waiting all day in the Home Depot parking lot is risky, he acknowledged, but “hay de comer todos los días,” he said in Spanish. (In English, that translates to: “We all have to eat every day.”)

Luis, a taxi driver who fled Ecuador’s poor economy, gang violence and regular kidnappings for opportunity in the U.S., was picked up in a raid in February just around the corner from the Home Depot. He ultimately sat in detention for three months in Bakersfield, California.

Still, he said, he prefers the U.S. to Ecuador’s instability as well as the ability to earn enough money to support his two children back in Ecuador. And as for the detention, he said, he couldn’t complain. He had food, clean clothes, a bed and access to a shower and hygiene supplies.

Because Luis hadn’t broken any laws, he said, he was let go and his record swept clean.

He has a November hearing with USCIS; he’s in the process of pleading asylum and hopes the meeting will grant him protection.

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