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U.S. citizen handcuffed by ICE outside Annapolis 7-Eleven, leads lawsuit over warrantless arrests

Sep 11, 2026·Location: Annapolis, MD

U.S. citizen handcuffed by ICE outside Annapolis 7-Eleven, leads lawsuit over warrantless arrests
Photo via WTOP

Samuel Guzmán, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen born in Maryland who spent part of his childhood in Mexico and lives in Anne Arundel County, was surrounded and handcuffed by masked ICE agents near a 7-Eleven in Annapolis one Sunday in June while driving to his restaurant job. He said he repeatedly told officers he was born in the country, and that one officer asked him, 'If you are an American citizen, why don't you speak better English?' He was held for more than an hour alongside other Latino individuals and said he worried about a co-worker who lived nearby. Guzmán is now the lead plaintiff in a proposed federal class-action lawsuit, Guzmán v. DHS, filed September 9, 2026 in U.S. District Court in Maryland by immigrant rights group CASA. He is joined by three other Maryland residents from Prince George's, Montgomery and Wicomico counties who say they were similarly arrested without warrants or probable cause. The lawsuit alleges ICE adopted an 'arrest first, ask questions later' policy targeting people perceived to be Brown or Black immigrants without individualized assessments, and asks a federal judge to declare such warrantless arrests unconstitutional.

Timeline

Sep 9, 2026—Guzmán v. DHS class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland by CASA
Jun 1, 2026—Samuel Guzmán detained and handcuffed by ICE agents near a 7-Eleven in Annapolis while driving to work
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