Maryland
After months in ICE custody, Maryland mother returns home – WTOP News
After months spent in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, a Hagerstown, Maryland, mother is finally home and reunited with her family.
Jackson (center) at his high school graduation in May of 2023.
(Courtesy Danny Hoang)
After months spent in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, a Hagerstown, Maryland, mother is finally home and reunited with her family.
A Facebook page called “Bring Melissa Home” provides updates on Melissa Tran’s case. A recent post read, “Melissa extends her thanks to everyone who has played a role in keeping her story alive and getting her home.”
Tran, a Vietnamese refugee, owns the popular Nail Palace & Spa in Hagerstown, and her family said the community has rallied around them.
“We (are) so, so happy she’s home,” her husband Danny Hoang told WTOP.
He said his wife is tired but enjoying “quiet time” at home with their four children.
“I’m feeling good,” he said. “We (are) so excited and so happy.”
In May, Tran, 43, was taken into ICE custody in Baltimore during a regular check-in and was told she would be deported to Vietnam due to a deportation order from a criminal conviction when she was 20 for stealing from her employer. Tran served time in jail and paid full restitution.
Since May, she’s been moved from Baltimore to Louisiana, then Arizona, and finally a facility in Washington state. Throughout the ordeal, she’s received an outpouring of support from friends, family and clients.
JoAnn Bolton has been coming to the nail salon for a long time and said Tran is “always smiling, very friendly, just a wonderful person.”
The community shared Tran’s story on social media, raised money for Tran’s family and wrote letters to President Donald Trump’s administration. Over the weekend, they finally got the update they’d been hoping for – a federal judge ordered Tran’s release.
“Everybody’s just so overwhelmed that everything turned out the way it did, and we’re just happy to have her back,” Bolton said. “I’m so happy for her and her family. … We’ve been praying for her and it’s just a blessing that she’s home with us.”
Her legal battle continues in immigration court, as her attorneys try to overturn the final deportation order.
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Maryland schools made nation-leading strides in their recovery from students’ learning loss in the pandemic, data show.
Maryland schools made nation-leading strides in their recovery from students’ learning loss in the pandemic, according to new data.
They ranked third in the nation in their students’ reading recovery rates, and were fifth in math recovery, according to the 2025 Education Scorecard from Harvard and Stanford Universities and Dartmouth College.
D.C. led the U.S. in math and reading recovery.
The data was presented at the Maryland State Board of Education meeting Thursday.
Trish Brennan-Gac, executive director of literacy nonprofit Maryland READS, said the state board is correct to celebrate gains in reading, but proficiency is “nowhere near where we need to be.”
“It is not that we are No. 3-ranked in reading proficiency,” she told WTOP. “It’s a rate of change, and we are making a faster rate of change,” than most school districts nationally.
Brennan-Gac was at the meeting to ask that the state board consider ways to reduce the use of technology in classroom instruction and support a return to print and textbooks in schools.
“This is no longer a fringe concern. It is a growing movement, and it’s not about social media and phones,” she told the board.
Brennan-Gac said the board and Maryland schools superintendent Carey Wright can take a “visible meaningful leadership role.”
“You can develop transition guidance and funding pathways for districts that are ready to move now, and send a clear signal to the field that Maryland prioritizes developmentally appropriate instruction aligned to brain research that shows how books, not tech-based platforms, are effective in wiring kids’ brains for reading,” she said.
The Maryland State Department of Education has issued guidance to school districts on the use of cellphones in schools, and this year issued guidance on the use of artificial intelligence. In both instances, the state has made clear that it leaves implementation of policies to individual school districts.
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© 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
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