A federal judge has dismissed Maryland's lawsuit demanding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hand over records about its Baltimore holding rooms, finding that the state law the attorney general relied on does not let his office subpoena a federal agency, The Baltimore Banner and the Associated Press reported.
U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin granted the federal government's motion to dismiss in a memorandum opinion dated October 15 in State of Maryland v. Venturella. Attorney General Anthony Brown's office had issued an administrative subpoena on January 30, after opening a civil-rights investigation into the holding rooms in the George H. Fallon Federal Building, and sued in March after ICE refused to comply. Rubin wrote that the subpoena 'is fatally facially defective and cannot be enforced by this court' and that Brown's office 'has no cognizable right to the information requested.'
The subpoena cited a Maryland civil-rights provision that lets the attorney general compel records from a 'person' in certain investigations. Rubin concluded that 'person' in that statute does not include the federal government or its agencies, and she dismissed the case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, denying the state's summary-judgment motion as moot. Because the dismissal is without prejudice, it does not by itself bar a new action on a different legal footing. She also rejected the state's later argument that the subpoena really targeted private contractors, noting the subpoena named only DHS and ICE.
The ruling decides nothing about conditions inside the rooms. Maryland's complaint alleged overcrowding and people held for days — beyond ICE's own 12-hour short-term limit, under internal waivers — without showers or beds; those are the state's allegations, not court findings in this case. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Baltimore Sun the agency was pleased 'this frivolous lawsuit' was dismissed, and DHS has called the Baltimore site a processing facility, not a detention facility, and the overcrowding claims false. Brown's spokeswoman Kelsey Hartman said the office is 'reviewing the opinion.'
A separate detainee class action over the same rooms, D.N.N. v. Liggins, continues before Judge Rubin. In that case she earlier ordered ICE to end overcrowding and, in late September, found the rooms were still overcrowded in violation of her earlier order and imposed added oversight — findings DHS disputes. That case, not the attorney general's records suit, is now the live court fight over the rooms themselves.
Maryland has no long-term immigration detention centre, so people detained in the state — including Punjabi and other South Asian residents picked up in the Baltimore-Washington area — are held first in these Fallon Building rooms and then often transferred to far-away facilities. This ruling was about who can demand records, not about what happens inside; the conditions case continues separately.
What is solid
- Judge Rubin dismissed Maryland's records lawsuit on October 15 for lack of jurisdiction, holding the state subpoena statute does not reach federal agencies — court memorandum opinion in State of Maryland v. Venturella, as reported by The Baltimore Banner, the Associated Press and MDBayNews.
- The dismissal is without prejudice and does not rule on conditions inside the Baltimore holding rooms; a separate detainee class action over conditions continues before the same judge.
What is only claimed
- Conditions inside the rooms: Maryland alleges overcrowding and multi-day holds without showers or beds; DHS calls the claims false, describes the site as a processing facility rather than a detention facility, and called the attorney general's lawsuit frivolous.