U.S. citizen handcuffed by ICE outside Annapolis 7-Eleven, leads lawsuit over warrantless arrests
Sep 11, 2026·Location: Annapolis, MD

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
Sources
- Suit aims to block warrantless arrests by ICE in Maryland
Washington Post·Sep 11, 2026
- Class-action lawsuit filed in Md. over DHS ‘arrest first, ask questions later policy’ – WTOP News
WTOP·Sep 10, 2026·archived copy
- Maryland residents sue ICE over alleged warrantless arrests
thegrio.com·Sep 12, 2026·archived copy
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