A University of Maryland student who once graduated at the top of her class at Parkdale High School has been detained by immigration authorities, according to her boyfriend, who says she and her mother are now being held in Louisiana after attending a routine immigration check-in in Baltimore. Maria Flores Garcia, a public health major who dreamed of becoming a doctor, had built a life defined by academic achievement since arriving from El Salvador as a child — a story now upended by her detention.
According to NBC4 Washington, Flores Garcia attended the immigration check-in with her mother in Baltimore last week, and both women were detained there, per her boyfriend, Cesar Saavedra. He told the station that Flores Garcia was taken into custody minutes after she stayed by her mother's side. “Sadly, she was detained minutes after,” Saavedra said. The two are currently being held in Louisiana, the report states.
A Scholarship Student With Dreams of Medicine
Flores Garcia graduated at the top of her class at Parkdale High School in Prince George's County, per the NBC4 report, before earning a full ride to the University of Maryland, where she has been studying public health with plans to become a doctor. She came to the United States from El Salvador as a child, and in her own words described the upheaval of that transition: “At the age of 9, like many other children, I faced the challenge of starting over,” she said.
Saavedra, who started an online fundraiser to help Flores Garcia and her mother hire an immigration attorney, said she did not fully understand what was happening to her. He said the pair are hoping to be released rather than sent back to El Salvador, and that loved ones are now pushing for her release.
Part of a Wider Pattern Around Baltimore and Washington
Flores Garcia's detention comes amid what The Baltimore Banner describes as a ramp-up in ICE arrests nationally, including around Baltimore and Washington, D.C., following a data-sharing agreement between ICE and the Transportation Security Administration. That outlet has also reported on other detentions tied to the region's universities: University of Maryland School of Pharmacy instructor Berhanu Kibret was arrested by immigration agents at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on July 21, 2026, with the Department of Homeland Security saying he had overstayed a visa that expired in May 2024. Johns Hopkins researcher Fatima Ameaka, originally from Cameroon, was detained at Baltimore's airport and released two days later, according to the same outlet.
Nationally, detention numbers have climbed sharply. The Vera Institute of Justice reported that by mid-March 2026, ICE detention populations had reached unprecedented levels, with almost every day since mid-June 2025 exceeding the previous peak set in August 2019. The organization's data showed ICE detaining an average of more than 66,000 people per day in July 2026, with the daily population peaking above 73,000 in mid-January 2026, according to a Vera Institute report.
Louisiana, where Flores Garcia and her mother are now held, accounted for roughly 13 percent of people detained by ICE nationwide in July 2026, per that same Vera Institute data — behind only Texas. Vera has separately documented how ICE's use of local jails in Louisiana expanded between June 2017 and the fall of 2019, growing the detained population there by 6,400 people during that stretch.
Similar Cases Have Drawn Scrutiny Elsewhere
Flores Garcia's situation echoes other recent cases involving students and children caught up in immigration enforcement. At San Francisco International Airport, UC Berkeley student Paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez was detained by ICE on Oct. 30 while waiting to board a flight with her boyfriend, according to The Daily Californian. A federal judge later ordered her immediate release, ruling that ICE had violated her due process rights, and the order now requires seven days' notice and a bond hearing before she can be detained again. Nearly 300 students protested on Sproul Plaza to demand her release, the paper reported.
In another case, an 8-year-old Haitian boy was placed into federal custody alone after attending an ICE appointment with his uncle, according to his school district and an advocacy group cited by ABC News. ICE said agents treated the child as an unaccompanied minor because his uncle could not establish legal guardianship.
Trump Reflects on Enforcement After Midterm Losses
The reporting on Flores Garcia's detention arrives as President Donald Trump has publicly reconsidered aspects of his deportation agenda. In an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes that followed Republican losses in the midterm elections, Trump suggested his approach may have gone further than intended. “I think it might be too tough, yeah,” he said, according to the NBC4 report.
