Partner of man shot by ICE in Glen Burnie speaks out as he fights for freedom

At around 9:50 a.m. on Dec. 24, Baltimore resident Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins called his partner to say he was grabbing supplies from Lowe’s to complete an electrical job in Glen Burnie.

Afterward, Sousa-Martins planned to hurry home to get ready for Christmas with their two young sons, his partner recalled him telling her. “I said, ‘Yes, that’s fine. Call me.’”

He wouldn’t have the chance.

Shortly after that conversation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement approached, shot and arrested Sousa-Martins, a Portuguese immigrant who they claim had overstayed his visa.

His partner is speaking out now amidst a new push from his legal team to have him released from custody. It’s one of the highest profile immigration cases in Maryland — one in which federal officials changed their story about what happened in the residential court in Glen Burnie where Sousa-Martins was shot.

The partner offers a rare glimpse into the aftermath of a case that drew national attention and an experience likely shared by many other families who’ve had loved ones arrested and detained by ICE under President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration enforcement initiative. In the weeks after Sousa-Martins was shot, immigration officers killed two American citizens in Minnesota, prompting national outcry.

In Spanish, Sousa-Martins’ partner, who asked not to be identified because of concerns for her safety, offered a message to families in similar situations.

“Hope is the last thing to be lost,” she said. “To everyone experiencing this — to those being torn apart by a system that breaks up families — I say: Stay very strong. In the end, everything comes to an end. Eventually, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. Always, always keep the faith that in God’s time, everything concludes; everything will pass and return to normal — perhaps not in the way we all want, but in the way God intends for us."

The encounter began when ICE agents noticed a white work van in the Lowe’s parking lot, ran the tags and determined it was registered to Sousa-Martins.

Officers followed Sousa-Martins into a nearby condominium community, boxed in his van with their vehicles and ordered him out of the car. After they smashed his window, according to court documents, Sousa-Martins attempted to flee. Three agents opened fire, striking him.

Sousa-Martins’ partner received a call from the wife of a friend who was supposed to do the electrical job with Sousa-Martin saying he’d been arrested, she said. Later, the friend told her to turn on TV news.

“It looks like Tiago was shot,” his partner recalled the friend telling her.

Sousa-Martins’ partner said she was left in shock.

“I had many questions weighing on my mind that no one could answer,” she said.

And in the ensuing days, she had to grapple with new realities. Even though she also worked, the family’s primary breadwinner was gone. She had to figure out what to tell their 4-year-old son, who was quick to ask about his father’s whereabouts.

At first, she told him his dad had to work late. Later and to this day, she tells her oldest that her dad was away on a work trip.

Meanwhile, Sousa-Martins was recovering under ICE supervision at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. According to court records, bullets struck him in the right thigh and back, damaging his spine and puncturing a lung. One bullet remains lodged in his back.

He was discharged Jan. 1 and immediately transferred to ICE custody. That’s around the time his partner heard from him for the first time since being shot and arrested.

“He almost died,” she said. “But he managed to survive all that. When I finally talked to him, he sounded very — like he couldn’t breathe."

With time, his condition improved slightly.

However, his attorneys alleged he suffered medical neglect in federal custody, mirroring a national trend of detainees saying ICE failed to provide adequate medical care. Sousa-Martins was denied access to a breathing apparatus recommended by doctors, basic medications to treat his gunshot injuries and bandage changes, his lawyers said.

Immigration officials have defended their treatment of detainees in their custody.

Less than a month after the shooting, federal prosecutors charged Sousa-Martins with resisting arrest and damaging government property.

In April, Sousa-Martins pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor. A federal magistrate judge sentenced him to the time he already served in custody awaiting trial, expressing skepticism of the anonymous ICE agents who never appeared in court.

After a few months in federal criminal detention, Sousa-Martins was transferred back to the custody of immigration authorities. He is currently being held at ICE’s Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia.

“The Constitution is clear: civil immigration detention cannot be punitive,” one of his immigration lawyers, Alice Barrett of the immigrant rights group We Are CASA, said in a statement. “Tiago’s continued detention without bond, while he continues to be denied proper medical treatment for gunshot wounds inflicted by ICE, is nothing short of punitive retaliation.”

In a 2-1 decision in May, a panel of judges on the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to halt Sousa-Martins’ deportation while he challenges his removal from the country.

The federal Department of Homeland Security, which encompasses ICE, said Sousa-Martins would remain in custody while his immigration case progressed and that the agency complies with court orders.

Throughout Sousa-Martins’ time in custody, he has had regular calls with his partner and oldest son. They typically keep to small talk to avoid “ending up in tears,” his partner said.

“Tiago sometimes tells me about his day, what he ate, what he did, and for the most part he asks about us, how was the day, what is it that you’ve done, how is the kids school, how’s home, have we slept well, is anyone sick,” she said.

His partner said she and her oldest son have been going to counseling to cope with Sousa-Martins’ absence. They are also relying on friends and the immigrant rights group to get through.

She gets emotional every time someone says he might come home soon.

She said she would cry tears of joy if he returned. But there’s already so much he’s missed. There was the Christmas that they were going to celebrate together at home for the first time, rather than with her family in New Jersey. Both of his sons celebrated birthdays while he’s been in custody. The youngest, at 1 and a half, just started walking.

“Time does not come back,” she said. “These are moments that won’t happen again.”