U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is dropping its effort to deport a Prince George’s County native who has spent months trying to prove her United States citizenship, court documents show.
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, a 22-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico, was detained by federal agents in December during what her attorneys believe was a targeted traffic stop in Baltimore.
At the time, ICE claimed she was a Mexican national named Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz and was in the U.S. unlawfully.
Her legal team said she was placed in deportation proceedings despite showing immigration officials her Maryland birth certificate. Officials at the federal Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, later asked for additional proof of citizenship, including a U.S. passport, which her legal team said she did not have.
Gunther Sanabria, president of the law firm representing Diaz Morales, said in a news release that Diaz Morales received her U.S. passport on June 1. The Department of Homeland Security filed a motion on Monday to dismiss Diaz Morales’ case after “good cause” was established.
“To all those that fear a ‘show your papers’ society, Dulce and her ongoing saga should properly be seen as a shot across the bow,” Sanabria said. “This case has loudly proven that you are only legal until the government says otherwise.”
Representatives from ICE and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on why they dropped the charges against Diaz Morales.
On Dec. 14, Diaz Morales, who was born in Laurel, was a passenger in a car her sister was driving when multiple vehicles surrounded them and federal agents detained her.
She is the first known native-born Marylander to be caught up in the Trump administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement.
After Diaz Morales’ arrest, ICE transferred her five times between facilities in Louisiana, Texas and New Jersey over the course of 25 days, according to attorneys Victoria Slatton and Zachary Perez. Diaz Morales spent Christmas and New Year’s separated from her family, including her young son.
When she addressed reporters in January, Diaz Morales described the shock she felt during the arrest and the harsh conditions she endured while being transferred between detention facilities.
“They told me I only had two options: Buy a ticket, or they were going to deport me,” she said at the time. “I told them I was born here.”
Her detention stems from an encounter at the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona in 2023, during which, ICE said, she told Customs and Border Protection agents she was a citizen of Mexico. Her family has said she was living in Mexico at the time, but left for the United States after an emergency and wasn’t carrying all of her documentation in her haste.
An immigration judge ultimately ordered her removal after she did not appear at one of several subsequent court hearings. Her attorneys said she never should have been called to immigration court in the first place because, as a U.S. citizen, she was not subject to its jurisdiction.
ICE released Diaz Morales on Jan. 7 but required her to wear an ankle monitor and make frequent in-person check-ins with immigration agents.




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