Maricé Morales says her small law firm has been so busy working immigration cases since news of President-elect Donald Trump (R) returning to the White House that she’s looking to hire extra help.

“Everybody is really afraid,” Morales said in a recent interview. “And they’re wondering if they have a pending petition, if that is enough to protect themselves under the law, in front of a judge.”

That means the former Montgomery County delegate, the sole attorney in the Law Office of Maricé Morales, who works with four paralegals, is looking for extra hands to deal with the increased workload, as immigrants across the state look to shore up their documentation status in anticipation of a hostile Trump-administration.

Trump repeatedly promised on the campaign trail that he will begin a mass deportation effort on his first day of his presidency. His nominations since the election of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Holman as a White House “border czar” have only increased the likelihood he will hold true that promise.

Immigration attorneys and immigrant advocates looking for every available avenue to keep as many Maryland immigrants as possible in the state. According to CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization, there are around 300,000 undocumented residents in Maryland. Other organizations, like the Migration Policy Institute, put the number at 225,000 in the state.

“They are very devastated, very scared,” said Gustavo Torres, Executive Director of CASA, of undocumented residents in Maryland. “They are concerned about what will happen with their family. But at the same time, they are ready to fight back, meaning they are ready to do whatever it takes to protect their rights.”

He said that CASA is working on outreach, including a “Know Your Rights” educational campaign to help migrants navigate the complicated immigration system and connect them with resources.

Torres and immigration lawyers in the state say a lot of protection for undocumented immigrants and those under certain immigration programs will come from the court system.

Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations with American Immigration Lawyers Association, said that lawyers are working to get as many immigration cases filed as possible before Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.

“Trump has promised a lot of things on immigration that can be very scary. A lot of our members are focused on trying to get as many filings in now as they can,” she said. “Many of our members know what happened in the first Trump administration, that litigation became such a key tool in their arsenal to get their clients cases approved or even to challenge those policies.

“The positive is that we all went through a Trump 1.0 administration, so we know what policies they enacted and will then likely bring back,” she said.

That said, Dalal-Dheini noted that Trump’s administration is likely to be more successful this term, as he will be building off of his previous experience from his last presidency that ended in 2020.

Trump rapidly unveils appointments to Cabinet, staff posts in dizzying post-election week

According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a federal records database maintained by Syracuse University, there were 57,395 pending immigration cases in Maryland as of October, a fraction of the 3.7 million cases nationwide. According to Morales, those 57,000 people are more protected from deportation due to the fact that they have a  case open in court.

“As long as you’re within the court system, you have the guarantee that your rights will be protected,” Morales said.

Both Morales and Dalal-Dheini said that Maryland tends to be more immigrant-friendly than other states.

“We’re also in a much more diverse and open-minded and immigrant-friendly community,” Dalal-Dheini said. “Like our leadership in Maryland has always valued what immigrants bring to our country, regardless of whether they are documented or not.”

DACA and TPS in question

Still, immigration attorneys and advocates fear that a Trump presidency may also affect the roughly 7,000 residents who are in the state under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and the estimated 22,000 to 27,000 residents who have been given Temporary Protective Status (TPS).

DACA residents, sometimes called Dreamers, are undocumented immigrants who are protected from deportation because they were brought to the U.S. as children. Those with TPS have been granted temporary immigration status to stay in the U.S. because of a natural disaster or an ongoing conflict that makes it unsafe for them to return their home country.

Both categories are lawfully present, but advocates fear it is just a matter of time before the Trump administration tries to disrupt those programs.

“The Trump administration has used rhetoric that would call people who are here legally — on temporary protective status or DACA or parole, they’re allowed to be here and live here legally  — they now try to refer to those individuals as illegal,” Dalal-Dheini. “So, this sense of fear in the immigrant community … I think that’s the biggest problem, that people are going to be looking over their shoulder all the time.”

Thousands of immigrants in Maryland could be deported if Trump carries through on the mass deportation plans he campaigned on.

“People will be disappearing,” Morales said. “You’ll go to the grocery store and you won’t see workers, or go to your favorite restaurant and you won’t see people … kids in your kid’s classrooms who won’t be there anymore.”

Dalal-Dheini advises that immigrants and concerned residents get in contact with a lawyer to see what their options are.

“They should definitely consult with an attorney to see if there are things that they could do to further protect themselves,” she said.

“I think it will be really important to try to normalize your status, if you are able to change to some kind of more permanent status,” Dalal-Dheini said. “Immigrants should, knowing that there’s this deportation, that people should have emergency plans in place.”

Maryland volleyball pin hitter Samantha Schnitta hoped to erase an earlier mistake that gave No. 4 Penn State’s outside hitter Jess Mruzik a service ace. The costly error gave the Nittany Lions a 6-3 lead in the opening set.

Schnitta strung together back-to-back service aces to knot the first set at six apiece. But then Penn State’s explosive offense — which boasts the fourth-most kills per set in the nation — heated up. The Terps had no response, falling in four sets (13-25, 25-22, 13-25, 15-25) Sunday.

“One of things that [Penn State] does a really good job of is they’re very scrappy,” head coach Adam Hughes said. “They find themselves more swings and then they just take big hacks.”

Maryland sought to continue its three-game winning streak and avenge a four-set loss to the Nittany Lions earlier this season. Instead, the Terps were outplayed from the get-go and never looked like they had shot to pull off an upset.

The Nittany Lions sprinted out to a 4-1 lead after two powerful kills from outside hitter Caroline Jurevicius. Then Schnitta — the country’s leader in service aces — got going. Maryland had the score tied up and looked destined to get its first lead of the set.

But Penn State outside hitter Camryn Hannah landed a major blow, finding different angles on three straight kills. The Terps clung to a four-point deficit, but the Nittany Lions found another gear, scoring seven of the next eight points. Mruzik notched her second service ace of the set, while adding a kill and two blocks.

Schnitta racked up her second kill of the set trailing 20-11, but it was too little too late. Hannah put Penn State two points away before closing it out with her set-high seventh kill.

“If you’re disciplined and you have good handwork, you can block a bunch of balls,” Hughes said. “If you’re off by a little bit, it’s hard because they’re taking really big swings.”

The second set looked identical to the first, as the Nittany Lions got out to a 3-0 lead. But Maryland had an answer this time. It rallied back to a 7-7 tie, before middle blocker Anastasia Russ and setter Sydney Dowler teamed up for a block, giving the Terps their first lead of the match.

The Terps hung around, responding to any blow Penn State sent their way. Consecutive kills from Dowler gave Maryland a two-point lead, but Hannah matched it with two kills of her own. The score remained tied, this time at 18 apiece.

Pin hitter Katherine Scherer gave the Terps an opportunity with a kill, but outside hitter Sam Csire’s ensuing serve sailed long. Schnitta’s kill led to a Maryland set point. Then, Scherer closed it out, 25-22. A tip just over the heads of Penn State’s blockers sent the crowd wild.

On the back of the noisy atmosphere, Maryland got out to a 4-1 lead in the third set. But the Nittany Lions seized control with seven straight points, and Mruzik recorded two kills.

After a Terps’ timeout, Schnitta gave them a desperately-needed response. Back-to-back kills helped cut Penn State’s lead to two. But three consecutive points from the Nittany Lions moved the score to 13-8. Penn State used this momentum to extend its lead to eight after a service ace from libero Gillian Grimes.

Two kills from Mruzik moved the score to 21-12. The Nittany Lions scored the final four points, coming away with a 25-13 set victory. Defensive specialist Quinn Menger closed it out with two late service aces, while Hannah tallied her 14th kill of the match.

Maryland needed a response in the fourth set to stay in the match. Instead, Penn State pushed out to a 4-2 lead on the heels of two kills for middle blocker Maggie Mendelson. But the Terps responded with five of the next six points, with a service ace from Schnitta and defensive specialist Jonna Spohn.

Then, the Nittany Lions landed a big blow, one that proved fatal. Penn State scored 12 of the next 13 points, moving ahead 17-8. Maryland looked out of sorts, giving away free points. Back-to-back service aces from Csire helped cut the deficit down to five points.

Penn State scored seven of the last nine points, including two late kills from Mruzik. Maryland fell in the final set, 25-15. The Terps struggled to get their offense going in the fourth set, with a 26.1% hitting percentage.

“I thought we weren’t in system as much as we’d like to be,” Hughes said. “We never really got a rhythm. Offensively, it never felt like we were on the same page, missing some sets.”

Three things to know

1. Defense shines in the loss. While the Terps ended up falling in four sets, they made several diving plays that kept rallies alive. Maryland posted 43 digs, led by 13 from libero Lilly Gunter. But it was a tall task slowing Penn State’s electric offense.

2. Ranked woes continue. The Terps have struggled all season against ranked teams. Maryland has picked up just two sets in seven matches against such opponents. No. 2 Nebraska awaits the Terps in their regular-season finale.

3. Season-low in assists. Maryland entered the match with the fourth-fewest assists per set in the Big Ten. But against Penn State, its setters had all sorts of problems. Zoe Huang and Dowler combined for just 26 assists, tying its total against Wisconsin.

The parents of a boy injured in a hanging incident at an elementary school school in Charles County, Maryland, said they don’t think they’re getting the full story.

“He has marks under his eyes,” the mother of a 7-year-old boy injured in an incident at school told WUSA9.

She said she was shocked when she saw her son after the second grader was injured in the bathroom at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School in Waldorf.

“He said that the little boy told him, ‘I’m going to show you how I did people back in the day,’” the mother told WUSA9.

“He still has bruises on his neck from being choked,” the boy’s father said.

Carrie Burke, the principal at the school, issued a statement saying the incident was first reported to 911 as a possible suicide attempt, but she said that’s not true.

“This was then posted on social media by a community member, causing a bit of community concern,” Burke wrote.

“Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) quickly shared an update with you as well as the Barnhart staff to dispel any inaccurate information beginning to circulate. I apologize for the delay in that update, but our administrative team was addressing the needs of our students. The incident was also reported to our school resource officer (SRO),” she said.

The school said that two students were reportedly “horseplaying” in a school bathroom when one of the student’s jacket got caught on a stall door hook.

“The student was not able to free themselves and the other student involved was also not able to help them. This student left the bathroom to seek help from staff and reported the incident to administrators,” she wrote.

Then staff called 911 for “additional precautionary medical support,” Burke said.

The boy’s parents said they think there’s more to the story.

“Doesn’t make sense to me,” the boy’s mom said. “If you’re horseplaying, how do you get caught on the hook? Like, we need answers. I want answers, and we won’t stop until we get them.”

The boy was in second grade at the school and his mom said he would not be returning to the school.

“I feel like it’s bullying, because it’s no telling how many other kids this has happened to and they want the school district to step-up,” the boy’s mom said.

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