ICE re-detained Baltimore man in defiance of federal release order, moved him toward deportation to Eswatini

On March 9, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement re-detained Ibrahim Mohammed, a 43-year-old Ethiopian citizen and Baltimore-area resident, roughly five weeks after U.S. District Judge John deGravelles of the Middle District of Louisiana had ordered him released and found ICE's prior detention of him unconstitutional. Mohammed's counsel learned of the re-detention through a 20-second phone call that was then cut off, and ICE officers she subsequently reached could not tell her where Mohammed was or where he was being deported. By March 10, ICE had served Mohammed a Notice of Revocation of Release and he was "on his way to the airport" for removal to Eswatini, a country to which he had never been. Mohammed's counsel filed an emergency motion to enforce the prior release order and to block the removal; deGravelles found "no evidence of the process afforded to Mr. Mohammed in his current re-detention and rapid removal to Eswatini without notice," and granted a five-day temporary restraining order halting the deportation.

Mohammed had first been detained by ICE on July 17, 2025, when roughly ten officers arrived at his home and revoked the Order of Supervision under which he had been living since late 2024. He holds protection from deportation to Ethiopia under the Convention Against Torture, after an immigration judge found in 2024 that removal there would likely result in his torture or persecution. ICE held him at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for seven months before deGravelles's February 6, 2026 order — which also freed three other men held under the same program — found the agency had detained Mohammed without a significant likelihood of removal and without adequate process, and ordered his immediate release.

ICE has continued to arrest Mohammed since that February release; the Baltimore Banner reported that each detention, including the March episode documented here, was carried out through ICE's Baltimore field office. A prior 2017 conviction for child sexual abuse, for which Mohammed served a sentence under an Alford plea, has been cited by DHS as justification for pursuing his removal notwithstanding his CAT protection and supervised-release history.

Updates

2026-07-28 — Judge ordered ICE to show cause on contempt over the re-detention [3]

DeGravelles ordered ICE officials to show cause why "those specific decisionmakers who are responsible for this redetention" should not be held in contempt of the court's orders, with a hearing scheduled for the week of August 19, 2026 at which ICE officials are to appear virtually. The Baltimore Banner reported the show-cause order and upcoming hearing on August 19, 2026, noting Mohammed had been arrested a further time since the March re-detention and that it remained unclear whether he was still in ICE custody. Mohammed's attorney, Bridget Pranzatelli, said the case tests "whether ICE can ignore due process, ignore federal courts, and act as vigilantes in our streets without consequence."