A young woman, whose family says she was born in Laurel and is a U.S. citizen, was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Wednesday after 25 days in detention, according to attorneys representing the family.

ICE detained Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, 22, on Dec. 14 in Baltimore in what appeared to be a targeted arrest, and has said she is in the country unlawfully. She was in the car with her younger sister when multiple vehicles pulled them over.

The federal agency transferred Diaz Morales to multiple detention facilities around the country over her more than three weeks in custody. She was last held near Newark, New Jersey, according to ICE’s online detainee locator.

Diaz Morales reunited with her family late Wednesday night, said Zachary Perez, an attorney with Sanabria & Associates, which is representing the family.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, have said Diaz Morales is not a citizen.

“Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz is NOT a U.S. citizen,” read a DHS statement issued days after her arrest, using different surnames to refer to her. She was a Mexican national who was in the U.S. unlawfully, the statement said, after immigration officials encountered her at the southern border near Lukeville, Arizona, in 2023.

ICE and DHS didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Diaz Morales’ release.

Diaz Morales’ attorneys filed for a writ of habeas corpus in Maryland District Court shortly after her arrest, and said they provided multiple forms of proof of her U.S. citizenship to ICE. However, DHS claimed the attorneys did not provide a U.S. birth certificate, which Perez disputes, nor any evidence in support of that claim.

Days later, Judge Brendan A. Hurson ordered ICE not to remove her from the United States so that her case could play out in court. Diaz Morales’ release does not coincide with any additional order from Hurson, according to court records. It’s unclear if Diaz Morales’ release signals the end of the case.

The young woman’s detention came at the end of a year of surging ICE arrests across Maryland, where federal agents took roughly 3,200 immigrants into custody in the first nine months.

Enforcement continues to ramp up across the country, in some cases leading to violence. ICE agents shot a man in Glen Burnie on Christmas Eve and killed a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday.

Diaz Morales’ sister, Sirley, recently told reporters that they assumed the vehicles pulling them over on Dec. 14 belonged to local police.

“Everything happened very quickly,” she said. “They didn’t give her a motive or reason as to why they were taking her.”

This article may be updated