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A Maryland<\/a> woman has been released and reunited with her family after spending 25 days in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE<\/a>) custody \u2013 despite her attorneys saying documentation showed she was born in the US and therefore is a citizen.<\/p>\n Dulce Consuelo D\u00edaz Morales and her legal team maintain she was born in the US and possess records supporting that claim. ICE, however, had disputed this, asserting she is a Mexican citizen who entered the US unlawfully.<\/p>\n According to D\u00edaz Morales, ICE agents detained her near her home on 14 December while her family watched. She told the DC, Maryland and Virginia news outlet WRC-TV<\/a> that she attempted to explain she was born in Maryland \u2013 but said authorities did not accept her explanation. She added that her faith and the hope of reuniting with her family helped her endure the detention.<\/p>\n D\u00edaz Morales said she lived in Mexico starting at age seven and returned to the US more than a year and a half ago. She believes confusion arose because she used her mother\u2019s last name while living in Mexico, whereas US records list both her father\u2019s and mother\u2019s last names.<\/p>\n Four days after her arrest, a Maryland federal district court judge issued an order preventing<\/a> the government from deporting her while the court reviewed a petition filed by her attorneys challenging her detention.<\/p>\n One of her lawyers, Victoria Slatton, told the Washington Post<\/a> that the government has not dismissed the case against D\u00edaz Morales, meaning deportation proceedings could still move forward despite her release. But Slatton said she remains confident that her client\u2019s citizenship has been proven.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is a US citizen,\u201d Slatton told the Post. \u201cShe was born here. I think that we\u2019ve presented more than enough evidence, but we will continue to fight it until every single court accepts and acknowledges it.\u201d<\/p>\n Her attorneys say that D\u00edaz Morales entered the US to escape cartel violence in 2023 without proper paperwork and was mistakenly processed as an immigrant, placing her into deportation proceedings. They say that classification was an error.<\/p>\n The legal team said they submitted her US birth certificate along with additional documents they say establish her citizenship \u2013 but those materials were still insufficient to secure her release from ICE custody.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my years now of being an immigration attorney, I have never had to go this far for a case,\u201d attorney Zachary P\u00e9rez, who also represents D\u00edaz Morales, told WRC-TV. \u201cWhat we were finally able to get and what we worked on getting was a lengthy affidavit from a medical professional, a doctor who described why the birth certificate was authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told the Guardian in a statement: \u201cDulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz is NOT a US citizen \u2013 she is an illegal alien from Mexico. She did NOT provide a valid US birth certificate or any evidence in support of her claim that she is a US citizen.<\/p>\n \u201cOn December 14, ICE arrested this illegal alien in Baltimore, Maryland<\/a>. On October 20, 2023, when CBP encountered her near Lukeville, Arizona, Madrigal-Diaz claimed she was a citizen of Mexico and was born on October 18, 2003,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n D\u00edaz Morales told WRC-TV that she holds dual citizenship with Mexico and is in the process of applying for a US passport. She also said she has an upcoming check-in with immigration officials and will attend it alongside her legal team.<\/p>\n The issue of ICE targeting US citizens has been thrown into the international spotlight after a federal agent fatally shot a woman<\/a> during a large-scale immigration enforcement action in Minneapolis. The victim, Renee Nicole Good, was a US citizen and a mother of three.<\/p>\n