Highlandtown ICE Encounter Leaves Man, Two Agents Hospitalized Amid Conflicting Accounts

Ever Alvarenga, a 32-year-old Honduran asylum seeker who has lived in Baltimore for roughly 12 years, was hospitalized at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center following an April 2 ICE enforcement operation in Highlandtown that left him with a concussion and what his attorneys described as "significant injuries." Two ICE agents were also treated and hospitalized after the encounter.

The competing accounts of what unfolded on that Highlandtown street have since become the center of a legal and political dispute. Attorneys Adam Crandell and Clarissa Lindsey, who represent Alvarenga, allege that an ICE vehicle violently rear-ended his van during a targeted operation and that agents then assaulted and detained him. The Department of Homeland Security issued a sharply different version: that Alvarenga drove recklessly, slammed on his brakes and caused a multi-car pileup, then attempted to flee before agents forcibly detained him. DHS confirmed the operation was designed to execute a final order of removal. Local video and witness accounts captured agents emerging from an unmarked pickup to move on people during the encounter.

While Alvarenga remained at Bayview, Crandell and Lindsey said they were repeatedly denied private access to their client. The justifications offered by hospital or federal staff changed over time, shifting from medical stabilization to paperwork complications. Senator Chris Van Hollen publicly condemned the situation, calling the denial of counsel a "clear denial of the due process rights" guaranteed in the Constitution. DHS disputed that characterization, pointing to the final removal order as the legal foundation for the arrest.

If access to Alvarenga continues to be blocked, his attorneys said they will escalate to formal legal action. For immigrant families in Highlandtown and surrounding neighborhoods, the episode raised pointed questions about the safety of enforcement operations conducted in active traffic, the use of unmarked federal vehicles on city streets, and whether constitutional protections are being honored once someone is in ICE custody. The case now sits at the intersection of federal removal authority and the due process claims that Alvarenga's legal team, and at least one U.S. senator, argue apply regardless of immigration status.