Man shot by ICE on Christmas Eve in Glen Burnie freed after nearly 9 months in detention

A Portuguese man who was shot by federal immigration agents in Glen Burnie on Christmas Eve last year was released from detention Wednesday, advocates said.

Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, 30, is free nearly nine months after an encounter with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents left him hospitalized and then detained, according to We Are CASA, a national advocacy group. Sousa-Martins expressed gratitude to the organization for supporting him and his family “when I needed it most.”

“I can finally say I am free. It was a long and difficult battle, but I’m here to tell you that it is possible. Please, don’t ever lose hope. Don’t give up,” Sousa-Martins said in a statement.

Sousa-Martins’ release comes almost five months after he pleaded guilty in federal court to damaging government property and a judge sentenced him to time already served.

Sousa-Martins was headed to do electrical work in a Glen Burnie neighborhood when agents surrounded his car in what ICE described as a “targeted enforcement operation.” He tried fleeing, ramming his work van into the ICE vehicles that surrounded him. ICE agents smashed his windows, causing his work van to crash into a tree.

When Sousa-Martins exited his car and tried to run, three agents discharged their firearms at least 13 times, attorneys said. Sousa-Martins was hospitalized for roughly two weeks after ICE agents shot him in his right thigh and back, damaging his spine and puncturing one of his lungs.

He was then detained by ICE, including at a Virginia facility. CASA officials said Sousa-Martins was often deprived of adequate medical care while detained and remained separated from his family even after the guilty plea in April. Still, CASA officials celebrated the reunion of Sousa-Martins with his two young sons and partner while they say they continue trying to hold ICE accountable.

“Since Christmas Eve, his children have been without their father and his family has lived with the uncertainty of whether they would be together again,” Alice Barrett, the managing attorney of We Are CASA, said. “Today, we celebrate with them.”

Born in Portugal, Sousa-Martins has been in the United States since he was 13. He spent his adolescence in Newark, New Jersey. He earned a general contractor’s license, moved to Baltimore and bought a home here. ICE said he overstayed his visa.

Sousa-Martins’ story is intertwined with that of another immigrant, Salomon Serrano Esquivel of El Salvador, whom ICE agents arrested earlier that day. He was in the back of an ICE vehicle that crashed with Sousa-Martins’. ICE officers initially said he was a passenger in Sousa-Martins’ care but later backtracked on that statement.