ICE SENDS SOME MARYLANDERS THOUSANDS OF MILES FROM FAMILY, LAWYERS: Under President Donald Trump’s unprecedented deportation campaign, ICE has made a practice of transferring people the agency accuses of being in the country illegally to detention facilities thousands of miles across the country, creating vast distances between them, their loved ones and the lawyers fighting for their freedom. Maryland residents are transported across greater distances than people arrested in most other states. A Banner analysis of ICE records found that a person first detained in Maryland is typically transferred more than 1,200 miles, roughly the driving distance between Baltimore and southern Louisiana. Daniel Zawodny and Sahana Jayaraman/The Baltimore Banner.
- As the number of Maryland residents in custody ballooned, lawyers told us their clients were moving much farther away, introducing new administrative and legal hurdles to their cases. Those detained said the extra distance from family exacts a deep psychological toll. Sahana Jayaraman/The Baltimore Banner.
- As a project manager for a nonprofit that provides food assistance to immigrant families affected by ICE raids, Norma Gómez has witnessed the tumult and pain that have roiled the lives of millions of immigrant families since President Donald Trump returned to office, with devastating consequences for children’s health. Claudia Boyd-Barrett/KFF Health News.
OVER SIX YEARS, 2% OF MIGRANTS SAID THEY WERE HEADED TO MARYLAND: Between October 2018 and July 2025, about 2% of the migrants who crossed the southern border into the United States and were not deported — 90,667 people out of 4.5 million — told federal authorities they were settling in Maryland, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of federal records obtained and shared by The Associated Press. Tinashe Chingarande/The Baltimore Sun.
STATE CONFIDENT THAT IT IS SAVING RACING INDUSTRY: State officials put a best hoof forward on behalf of the horse racing industry Wednesday, expressing confidence that efforts to prop up and preserve the industry will not be in vain. The briefing before the House Appropriations Committee comes as Maryland horse racing faces continuing questions about its viability. Those concerns remain even as the state has pumped hundreds of millions into the industry — restoring Pimlico Race Course, buying Laurel Park and the rights to the Preakness Stakes — effectively assuming ownership. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
DEVELOPERS: ‘COMPLEX WEB’ OF REGULATIONS DRIVE HOUSING COSTS UP: Developers say that having to navigate the “complex web” of federal, state and local regulations contributes to the rising cost of housing and rent, which winds up pricing more and more Marylanders out of housing options. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
MEDICAID PAID ALMOST $70M TO FIRM LINKED TO FRAUDSTER’s COMPANY: Less than two years after Florence Bikundi was arrested for committing more than $80 million in Medicaid fraud, her brother, Ernest Igwacho, started receiving Medicaid funding through a separate but connected company. The brother’s company, Meiger Health, went on to receive at least $68.8 million through Medicaid, and continues to bill for Medicaid despite a 2023 D.C. Health inspection report concluding that the company “failed to report fraudulent activities.” Patrick Hauf/The Baltimore Sun.
VOTING RIGHTS ADVOCATES CALL FOR SUPREME COURT MAKEOVER: With “the crown jewel” of civil rights legislation gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court, and possibly the seats of 20 Black members of Congress at stake in November, voting rights advocates on Wednesday called for a makeover of the nation’s highest court. The court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais was “a calamity” that erased equal representation for Black voters, said Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
NUMBERS SURGE OF THOSE SEEKING HELP FROM VIOLENCE, EXPLOITATION: TurnAround, a Towson-based nonprofit that has served survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence for nearly five decades, saw a 70% increase in calls to its 24/7 hotline last year as more people sought help with violence, exploitation and human trafficking. Ruben Castaneda/The Baltimore Sun.
JUDGE ORDERS MAYOR SCOTT TO GIVE IG ACCESS TO CITY RECORDS: Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott must restore direct access to city records for the city’s inspector general and fulfill a dozen subpoenas she has served since last year, a judge said Wednesday. The decision by retired Baltimore Circuit Court Associate Judge Pamela White brings to a close the first chapter in a legal dispute between Scott and Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming over access to city records. A city appeal is likely. Emily Opilo/The Baltimore Banner.
- White’s statements amounted to a full-fledged, if tentative, victory for Cumming in her lawsuit against the city. It further represented a public scolding of the Brandon Scott administration for, in the judge’s words, “keeping the inspector general from doing her critical work” of rooting out fraud, abuse and corruption in city government free of interference from City Hall. Mark Reutter/Baltimore Brew.
MARYLAND ARTISTS MOURN SHUTTERING OF KENNEDY CENTER: They knew it was coming, but the Kennedy Center board’s Tuesday vote to shut down the national performing arts center for two years still shocked the Maryland theater community. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in 1971, looms large in Maryland artists’ backyards. Hannah Yasharoff/The Baltimore Banner.
