BALTIMORE — Another immigration battle is brewing in Maryland, the circumstances so desperate attorneys have continued to sound the alarm online.
They argue their client, Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, is a U.S. Citizen who has been detained by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) , despite them providing evidence to the government to prove her citizenship.
“There are many, many circumstances here that from the government's side are extraordinarily irregular and we're requesting everywhere that we can more information to get to the bottom of this,” supervising attorney Zachary Perez said.
“Extraordinarily irregular”: Attorneys claim U.S. Citizen detained by ICE
On Sunday, December 14, Diaz Morales was with her sister, Sirley Diaz. The pair were leaving a Taco Bell in Baltimore City and were driving away when they were stopped.
“She thought that it was police stopping them but it turned out to be immigration and they informed them that they were taking Dulce because she was older in age,” junior partner at Sanabria & Associates Monica Hernandez Santiago said.
Sirley also says they never identified themselves nor explained the reason for her sister’s arrest.
The 22-year-old who lives in Laurel was taken to the ICE holding facility in downtown Baltimore, where she complained of hunger and the cold, and experienced vomiting, her sister said.
Lawyers explain that Diaz Morales did spend a lot of time in Mexico as a child, but had to flee due to a life-threatening emergency, and returned to the U.S. without proper documentation. There was a removal order given in absentia in January 2025, which attorneys believe may have been done in error.
“Even a removal order does not strip somebody of U.S. citizenship. So, even if she was incorrectly put into immigration proceedings, which she likely was put into proceedings, that does not make her any less of a citizen,” Slatten said.
Shortly after she was detained in Baltimore, Diaz Morales was transferred to Louisiana.
Her sister says her five-year-old son keeps asking where his mother is. He was able to speak with her at some point over the phone, Diaz Morales telling him she’d be home soon because she is a citizen.
Lawyers on the other hand have not been able to have a conversation with their client. They were supposed to speak with her for the first time Monday morning in a confidential setting, a full week after her detainment began, but were told she had been transferred again.
“Her family called us shortly after with incredibly troubling news. Dulce called them this morning around 9 a.m. and said she was about to be deported,” attorney Victoria Slatten said. “As of now, we have not been able to verify this with any government agency. We hope that this last bit of information is untrue and that she is still inside the United States.”
If that’s not the case, it would be a violation of two orders by a federal judge which prevent her removal from the country while litigation is pending.
Attorneys say Diaz Morales has a birth certificate, immunization records and witnesses that can testify to her birth in a hospital on U.S. soil, all of which have been provided to both the courts and the U.S. government.
“That should be enough. She never should have been picked up in the first place,” Slatten said in a now-viral Tik Tok.
The Department of Homeland Security has defended its actions claiming that Diaz Morales is not a U.S. Citizen, referring to her by a different name “Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz”, which attorneys say is incorrect.
See the full statement from a DHS Spokesperson below:
“Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz is NOT a U.S. citizen--she is an illegal alien from Mexico. She did NOT provide a U.S. birth certificate or any evidence in support of her claim that she is a U.S. citizen.
On December 14, 2025, ICE arrested Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz, an illegal alien from Mexico, in Baltimore, Maryland. On October 20, 2023, when CBP encountered her near Lukeville, Arizona, Madrigal-Diaz claimed she was a citizen of Mexico and was born on October 18, 2003.
“Her case is being adjudicated and she is receiving full due process. Any allegation that ICE does not allow detainees to contact legal assistance is FALSE. All detainees have access to phones to communicate with lawyers.”