She slept on a cold cement floor because there weren’t any beds. She wasn’t allowed to shower or brush her teeth. When she complained about the food, she said they stopped feeding her altogether.

April Amaya-Luis said she never imagined she would be held under such harsh conditions in a temporary holding cell in ICE’s Baltimore office for seven days while waiting to be sent to a detention center out of state. With little contact with the outside world, she said she battled suicidal thoughts as a result of the experience last month.

Ordeals similar to what was experienced by Amaya-Luis are increasingly common for those detained by federal immigration agents, where immigrants are held at ICE’s Baltimore field office for multiple days at a time, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen local immigration attorneys.

The extended use of a temporary holding facility not equipped for overnight stays comes as President Donald Trump’s administration is moving aggressively to curb immigration and to deport people living in the United States without documentation.

ICE brings those they arrest in Maryland to its Hopkins Plaza field office downtown — a block away from CFG Arena — for processing before transferring them to a detention facility with an available bed.

But there is a bottleneck in the system, driven largely by a lack of bed space in detention facilities across the country, but also in part by a 2021 Maryland law that effectively ended longer-term detention in the state.

According to the agency’s own rules, people typically should not have to spend more than 12 hours in a holding room.

ICE officials have told local immigration attorneys they have been granted an exemption to the 12-hour rule, according to an email reviewed by The Banner. But this week, agency officials added to the confusion, saying now that the time restriction doesn’t even apply in Baltimore.

The Baltimore field office “operates a holding room, not a detention facility,” ICE said in a statement. As a result, the holding cell in Baltimore is not subject to a 12-hour limit that instead applies only to holding rooms inside a detention center, according to ICE.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains committed to enforcing immigration laws fairly, safely, and humanely, and ensures that holding facility [sic] operate in full compliance with federal laws, agency policies, and established standards to uphold the well-being and dignity of those in our custody,” the ICE statement said.

ICE officials did not reply to a follow-up question from The Banner asking about the standards, if any, that usually apply to its Baltimore holding facility, as well as other specific questions about the physical space.

The practice has alarmed some local attorneys and raised questions about whether local agents are upholding human rights and due process for those they have detained. Attorneys interviewed by the Banner said they have never been allowed physical access to the holding room.

Aside from the lack of beds, common complaints from detainees include extended stays with little to no food, a lack of access to medicine, and limited ability to receive visitors, if at all, according to their attorneys and immigrant advocates.

An advocacy group called the Free State Coalition said it plans to protest outside the building today at noon in defense of immigrant rights.

Eric Lopez, a deputy program director at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, which coordinates legal access programs in ICE facilities, said the organization has spoken in recent weeks with more than a dozen people held between three and nine days at the Baltimore field office. The majority of those interviewed had no criminal histories, he said.

“This is an inhumane, but predictable outcome as ICE indiscriminately continues to detain people, even though facilities across the country are overcrowded and immigration processes are backlogged,” said Lopez.

ICE has medical staff on site at the field office in case they are needed, an agency spokesperson wrote in an email. Detainees are promptly moved to hospitals when necessary, according to officials.

There are 43,759 people in ICE detention nationwide as of March 5, according to agency reports. About 29% have been convicted of crimes and about 19% have pending criminal charges, the reports found. Those reports, however, do not provide more specific information about the types of crimes.

According to a March 7 email reviewed by The Banner, Rachel Ullman, the chair of the ICE liaison committee for the Maryland State Bar Association, said she discussed the issue with ICE’s Baltimore Field Office Director Matthew Elliston.

Elliston told her that when detention facilities in Pennsylvania and Virginia are full, Baltimore ICE has “needed to hold some people for longer than 12 hours in order to find available bed space outside of Maryland,” according to Ullman’s email, which was sent to local bar association members.

Elliston‘s account in the email also raised questions about whether a 12-hour limit actually applies. The head of the Baltimore ICE office said it had obtained a waiver of the 12-hour time limit for holding rooms, according to the email.

He added that those in the holding room receive blankets, food, and medical care. Cots have been ordered but have not yet arrived, according to Elliston’s account in the email.

Ullman did not respond to a request for comment.

The holding facility space for ICE is located on the building’s sixth floor. Amaya-Luis said while she was there, she was largely alone in a single room with a narrow, shelf-like concrete bench and a toilet. The bench was not big enough to sleep on, she said, so she slept on the floor. There was a door and one window.

In another case in the Baltimore facility, an El Salvadoran asylum seeker held for three days was not given hypertension medication or medicine for headaches, according to her attorney. The woman was only given small snacks during her time there, her attorney said.

“This needs to stop. It’s scary right now,” said her attorney, who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation against her clients.

City and state officials expressed dismay about the use of the sparsely furnished ICE holding cell for long-term stays.

“We strongly oppose any tactics that deny people access to basic necessities or subject them to inhumane treatment,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement. “Detaining individuals for extended periods without proper care is unacceptable, and we unequivocally rebuke such actions.”

Gov. Wes Moore in a statement said he will continue to advocate for the federal government to “repair our broken immigration system.”

City Councilman Mark Parker, a Lutheran pastor who has worked with area immigrant communities for years, said he also worries about whether those in the Baltimore holding room can get the kind of legal assistance and spiritual care usually available in a long-term detention facility.

“It’s important that people’s legal rights are protected, but also their human rights are safeguarded,” Parker said.

The field office’s holding room is in a building under federal jurisdiction, meaning state and local lawmakers may not have the authority to press for changes as they did with locally owned facilities with ICE contracts.

The 2021 Dignity Not Detention law ended those contracts, effectively stripping the state of hundreds of beds here. Those detained in Maryland have since been sent to facilities in Pennsylvania, Georgia and beyond.

Parker said it’s imperative to mobilize the community and city resources that are available to help those affected and their families, as well as to continue to educate the wider community.

When Amaya-Luis’ attorney Rachel Girod saw her in a meeting room near the holding room last month, she said her client looked dejected and disheveled and was wearing the same jeans and a pink graphic T-shirt from her arrest.

“We never expected her to be in the holding room as long as she was,” Girod said. “They are usually there a matter of hours. I thought they were figuring out a place for her to go.”

Amaya-Luis pleaded guilty in February to second-degree assault after she was accused by an adult male pest control worker of unwanted touching during a visit to her home, according to court documents. She was convicted and sentenced to six months’ probation on that charge.

On Feb. 5, the White House posted a picture of her on its X account as an example of alleged crimes committed by immigrants. The post misgendered her and accused her of sexual assault of a child, a claim disputed by her attorneys as baseless.

Amaya-Luis, who is now back at home with her family in Kent County where she is awaiting her upcoming removal hearing in Baltimore immigration court, said the only thing that kept her going was the thought of her husband and family, who she said would suffer if anything happened to her.

“Everything was really terrible for me,” she said.