UMD student, former Maryland valedictorian speaks out from ICE detention facility
A University of Maryland student who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents alongside her mother last week is speaking out from an immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
Maria Flores Garcia, a former valedictorian at Parkdale High School in Prince George's County, was taken into custody during a routine immigration check-in with her mother at an ICE office in Baltimore.
Flores Garcia, who is originally from El Salvador, came to the United States when she was 9 years old.
"I'm here with my mom, so that's nice," Flores Garcia told WUSA9, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C. "But you look at your surroundings and you're like, 'Oh my God, nobody deserves to be here. Especially me.'"
From high school valedictorian to immigration detention
Flores Garcia was the 2026 valedictorian at Parkdale High School before receiving a full scholarship to the University of Maryland.
During her high school graduation, she spoke about the challenges she and her family faced after coming to Maryland from El Salvador. She said those experiences motivated her to excel academically and show that anything is possible.
Flores Garcia was accompanying her mother to the immigration check-in. When ICE agents moved to take her mother into custody, Flores Garcia chose to remain with her.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Flores Garcia and her mother entered the United States illegally and were arrested in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in 2016.
DHS said they were placed in removal proceedings but released into the country. An immigration judge issued a final order of removal on Feb. 23, 2021, according to the agency.
"She will remain in ICE custody pending her removal from the United States. This administration will not ignore the rule of law," the DHS spokesperson said.
"My life outside is on pause"
"I keep thinking, 'Oh, I should be doing this in my math class, or going to my class,'" Flores Garcia told WUSA9.
Flores Garcia said she is not alone in the facility, describing other detainees who have no criminal records and have built lives in the United States.
"Sadly, I'm not the only person that has no criminal record, that has made a life in the United States without hurting anybody that's in here," Flores Garcia said. "There's millions and millions of stories in the cell. Everybody here misses their family."
She described conditions inside the detention facility as "devastating."
"It's just a big room. You can hear the people coughing. It smells in here," she said.
In an interview with CBS News Baltimore, Flores Garcia said she is trying to remain positive and support others around her.
"I'm definitely trying to keep my essence and stay true to myself as much as I can," she said. "There's obviously times where I break down because it's devastating being here, knowing that my life outside is on pause. That I didn't do anything to be here."
Gov. Wes Moore voices support
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore voiced his support for Flores Garcia in a social media post Wednesday.
"Maria Flores Garcia should be home with her family today," Moore said. "Instead, President Trump's ICE agents detained Maria – a Marylander, high school valedictorian, and University of Maryland student – as she accompanied her mother to an immigration check-in last week."
Moore criticized the administration's immigration enforcement, saying ICE was not targeting only people with serious criminal records.
"ICE isn't rounding up 'the worst of the worst.' This is just pure cruelty for cruelty's sake," Moore said. "If the President is actually serious about wanting to work with the incoming Democratic majority on an immigration deal, he must end ICE's attacks on our communities and our people like Maria."