CEO Gabe Moreno – Full Statement to Baltimore Banner
Luminus CEO Gabriel Moreno’s full statement to the Baltimore Banner for its May 29 article entitled “ICE slammed Howard County for releasing Honduran offender. The county says it followed the law.”
“While I absolutely support accountability for serious crimes regardless of who commits them, I’m deeply concerned about the broader narrative ICE’s press release perpetuates.
What troubles me most is not the arrest itself – Mr. Flores-Arce was convicted through our judicial system and should face appropriate consequences. What troubles me is how ICE consistently weaponizes individual cases to abuse the media to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment across our communities.
While ICE cynically highlights individual criminal cases to justify its broad enforcement agenda, we cannot ignore the mounting evidence of serious civil and human rights violations occurring across the country. These include credible reports of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; harsh and life-threatening conditions in detention facilities where at least 9 detainees have died while in ICE custody since January 2025; and arbitrary arrests or detention. We are witnessing forcible family separations that traumatize children and parents alike. Parents are too fearful to send their children to school, some even paying others to pick up their children out of fear of ICE hunting them down. We see warrantless seizures that violate Fourth Amendment protections and the effective kidnapping of both immigrants and U.S. citizens who are detained without due process.
Particularly alarming is the practice of “disappearing” people to other countries – a tactic reminiscent of authoritarian regimes. Attorneys are forced to file emergency habeas corpus actions with some courts like Maryland to issue standing orders in relation to immigrant-related habeas stop these actions.
Above. Standing order regarding Petitions for Writs of Habeas Corpus issued the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on May 21, 2025.
I demand ICE to answer to the case of Andry José Hernández Romero, a Venezuelan makeup artist deported to a Salvadoran maximum-security prison because his religious crown tattoos were wrongly classified as gang insignia. This case exemplifies their dangerous overreach. I also demand ICE to explain Ximena Arias-Cristobal‘s detention – a 19-year-old college student held for over two weeks at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia after police wrongfully arrested her, later admitting they pulled over the wrong car. These cases demonstrate how ICE’s inflammatory rhetoric creates conditions ripe for these abuses, targeting vulnerable individuals who have built their lives in United States. Further alarming are the knock and talk fishing expeditions in Maryland and other places disguised as wellness checks to raise ICE’s collateral detentions.
These enforcement patterns reflect deeper systemic issues. When agencies elevate enforcement metrics above human dignity and constitutional protections, they create an environment where white supremacist ideologies can flourish under the guise of “public safety.” Moreover, the use of officials from diverse backgrounds to implement these policies does not negate their discriminatory impact – it merely provides cover for what are fundamentally white nationalist immigration policies designed to target Latino, Muslim, and Black communities.
This press release follows a familiar playbook: highlight the worst possible case, use charged language about “illegally present” individuals, blame local jurisdictions for following their own policies, and create an atmosphere of fear that impacts millions of law-abiding immigrants who contribute positively to our society every single day.
Let me be clear about what this ICE press release doesn’t tell the general public: It doesn’t mention that immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens. It doesn’t acknowledge that privacy policies exist to encourage immigrant communities to report crimes and cooperate with police without fear. It doesn’t recognize that the vast majority of immigrants – documented and undocumented alike – are hardworking tax paying people trying to build better lives for their families.
By focusing relentlessly on cases like this one, ICE creates a distorted picture that harms entire communities. When immigrant families are afraid to send their children to school, seek medical care, or report domestic violence because they fear any interaction could lead to deportation, we all become less safe.
I encourage everyone reading these types of press releases to look beyond the inflammatory language and get to know the immigrant families in your community. You’ll find teachers, healthcare workers, business owners, and neighbors who enrich our communities immeasurably.
They deserve better than to be defined by the actions of one individual.”