A 22-year-old Maryland woman, Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, has been held in immigration detention for days despite being a U.S. citizen with a valid birth certificate and other official documents, according to her legal team. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have questioned the authenticity of her paperwork, leading to a contentious legal battle and her transfer to a facility in Louisiana.
An Abrupt Arrest and Allegations of Profiling
The incident began on Sunday, December 14, 2025, in Baltimore. Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was with her 17-year-old sister, Shirley Elvirita, and their father after doing laundry. The sisters later went to get food at Taco Bell. On their way back, they were surrounded by multiple law enforcement vehicles and pulled over.
Shirley recounted that officers ignored her questions and "forcefully" took her sister into a van. She was released, but her sister was not. "I kept shouting at them that she was from here, but they wouldn’t listen to me," Shirley told HuffPost. She believes the stop was racially motivated, stating the officers paid no attention to her identification and went straight to her sister "because she’s darker than me."
Victoria Slatton, one of Diaz Morales’ attorneys, echoed this sentiment. "To me, it seemed like racial profiling. I have not been given a legitimate reason why she would have been picked up," Slatton said. "I have not seen any evidence that they went there to find her, or that she was doing anything wrong."
A Legal Maze and a Midnight Transfer
After her arrest, Diaz Morales was initially held at an ICE office in Baltimore. Her attorneys quickly filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to challenge her detention. However, in a move that complicated the legal proceedings, ICE transferred her to Louisiana—a state known as a hub for deportation operations.
Zachary Perez, another attorney on the case, said the legal team waited for nearly five hours in Baltimore to speak with Diaz Morales, only to be informed she had been moved out of state in the middle of the night. "We suspect—we don’t have proof—we suspect they did this because they knew we were going to file the lawsuit," Perez stated.
The legal situation intensified when U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson, a Biden appointee, issued and later extended a standing order. This order explicitly enjoins ICE from removing Diaz Morales from the United States or altering her legal status while the court determines its jurisdiction and the merits of her case.
Disputed Citizenship and "Infuriating" Document Denials
The core of the dispute lies in Diaz Morales’ citizenship. Her attorneys have provided ICE with multiple documents proving she was born in Laurel, Maryland, including her birth certificate, immunization records, and medical documents.
"They’re denying that any of her birth certificates... her records of immunization, medical records—they’re denying the authenticity of them," said attorney Zachary Perez. "It is something I’ve never encountered in all my work as an attorney. It’s infuriating."
ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System lists a detainee under a variation of her name, Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz, and states her country of birth as Mexico. Shirley explained the name discrepancy, noting that after their parents married, her sister began using a slightly different name on paperwork, incorporating their mother’s maiden name.
In a statement to HuffPost, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson asserted that Diaz Morales is "an illegal alien from Mexico" who "did NOT provide a U.S. birth certificate or any evidence in support of her claim." The statement also denied allegations that detainees are prevented from contacting legal assistance.
Attorney Victoria Slatton firmly countered this, stating unequivocally, "She is a U.S. citizen." Slatton noted that indisputable records, including a birth certificate and Maryland immunization records, were provided to both ICE and the Executive Office for Immigration Review. She added that she called the hospital where Diaz Morales was born and they confirmed she was a patient during that "general period," a detail she said would be "impossible to manufacture."
Diaz Morales’ situation is complex. Born in the U.S., she went to Mexico as a child and later re-entered the United States without documentation, fleeing what her attorneys and father described as a life-threatening situation involving a cartel. Her lawyers stress that re-entering without documentation does not strip a person of their U.S. citizenship. "If you’re a United States citizen—which she is, she was born a United States citizen—you have the right to return to the country," Perez said.
As of Thursday night, Diaz Morales had not yet spoken directly with her legal team, though a virtual appointment was scheduled for Monday, December 22. She has, however, spoken with family, expressing fear that she would be transferred again, further isolating her within ICE's detention network. Her sister Shirley’s plea remains simple and direct: "I want to know if they are going to release her. She was born here."
