The woman, identified in court records as Nayeli, was freed from the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia, her family confirmed. She had been arrested by ICE on September 29 at the Carroll County District Court building in Westminster, minutes before a scheduled hearing on the misdemeanor charges.

In a 19-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III sharply criticized ICE for relying on charges that were filed by a private individual rather than law enforcement and that were dropped as soon as the woman failed to appear because she was in immigration custody.

“Important here is the fact that no prosecutor or law enforcement officer filed charges against (Nayeli); rather, her former employer, Rasheed Haroon, filed a Statement of Charges against her,” Russell wrote. “The fact that the State’s Attorney immediately dismissed these charges only increases the likelihood that these charges were, in fact, meritless.”

The judge went further, writing that “it is entirely possible that the only unlawful act that may have been committed here is that of malicious prosecution by Rasheed Haroon,” suggesting the woman could pursue a lawsuit of her own.

ICE had claimed that detention was mandatory under the Laken Riley Act, a federal law that requires the detention of immigrants accused—but not convicted—of theft and certain other low-level crimes. Russell rejected that argument, finding that ICE does not have “limitless” power to detain people who have been released into the country on their own recognizance, as Nayeli was.

“It is improper for (ICE) to rely on nolle prossed charges as evidence that a crime was committed,” Russell wrote. “It offends due process to assert that those same dismissed charges justify revocation of [Nayeli’s] release on the stated basis that she conclusively ‘committed a crime of theft.’”

Nayeli and her mother entered the U.S. without proper travel documents in 2017, when she was 16. They were briefly detained and then released under the first Trump administration. They applied for asylum, a process that shields them from deportation while their case is pending. Their applications were denied in July 2025, but their case remains before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Nayeli is authorized to work in the U.S., according to her family.

Nayeli worked for about four years at A to Z Auto, a repair shop near Sykesville owned by Haroon, 55. She quit in June after, she said, Haroon made her uncomfortable by asking for hugs at work. Later that month she filed for a peace order, writing that he had repeatedly called and texted her demanding a one-on-one meeting, showed up at her house uninvited, followed her in his car to her parents’ home, and withheld her final paycheck of $1,650 to try to force her to talk to him.

At a June 22 hearing on the peace order petition, Judge Erin M. Danz found insufficient evidence to grant a final order but warned Haroon to stay away. “She doesn’t want to have contact with you,” Danz said, according to a courtroom audio recording. “If you continue to have contact, now that I have made that abundantly clear here in the courtroom, then you can come back and I will grant it at that point.”

A week later, Nayeli bought a meal at McDonald’s for $12.08 and accidentally used a company card that was still loaded into her McDonald’s app, she said. Haroon showed up at her mother’s workplace the next day to demand repayment, and her mother paid him immediately, according to screenshots reviewed by the Baltimore Brew.

“He told me, ‘I want to be nice with you and finish this nice because for me it’s easy to call ICE,’” Nayeli’s mother, Sury, recalled.

Haroon then went to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated but did not file charges. Deputies told him he could file charges himself through Maryland’s district court commissioner system, which allows anyone to file criminal charges without an investigation into whether they are true. Court commissioners do not need to be lawyers. The system has been widely criticized as easy to abuse.

Haroon filed charges on July 27. District Court Commissioner Eric Miller signed off on misdemeanors of theft of less than $100 and unauthorized use of a credit card. Nayeli learned of the charges when she was served with a summons; she was not arrested, contrary to ICE’s earlier claim.

Before the September 29 hearing, Carroll County prosecutor Mitchell “Craig” Wolf offered to pause the case if Nayeli agreed not to use Haroon’s card again and to perform 10 hours of community service. Nayeli’s lawyer, Kate DeNobile, objected that the community service was excessive for $12.08 that had been repaid, and told Wolf that Nayeli was “terrified” to appear because of Haroon’s ICE threats.

On the day of the hearing, four plainclothes ICE officers approached Nayeli and her family as they sat on a bench outside the courtroom. The officers did not identify themselves, Nayeli said, and asked her to come with them. Believing they were local police wanting to discuss the theft case, she walked down the hall with them. She realized they were ICE when they pulled her into a vestibule and discussed among themselves how to “do it here,” she said. The officers handcuffed her and walked her out of the courthouse, according to video of the arrest.

At the hearing, Judge Danz appeared unconcerned that a defendant had been arrested by ICE minutes earlier. “I don’t know what you want me to do about that,” Danz told DeNobile, according to the audio recording. “It’s not my hallway.” The charges were then dismissed.

It remains unclear who alerted ICE to the hearing. Haroon has denied responsibility. “She got arrested because she misused my card. Police told me to go file the charges,” he said. Wolf did not answer questions about whether he contacted ICE.

Even after the arrest, Wolf appeared open to pursuing additional charges based on Haroon’s claims. “I told him that it appears she will be deported, but that if he finds out that she is released, he should contact us/police to investigate the additional potential misuses of his card,” Wolf wrote in an email after the arrest. “Needless to say, if she is released and if she did make additional unauthorized purchases, we will seek to reinstate the case and potentially add charges.”

Nayeli and her family remain worried that Haroon will try to file charges again, or file them against her mother, who has similar legal status. Maryland lawmakers failed to pass changes to the district court commissioner system during the last legislative session.

In Nayeli’s case, it was the Due Process Clause that offered her the greatest protection—and she still spent over a month in detention.