BALTIMORE — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied immigration relief to Baltimore resident Zoila Guerra Sandoval in early April 2026 and placed her in removal proceedings, requiring her to appear in immigration court. Guerra Sandoval, who has lived in the United States without legal status for two decades and has no criminal record, is the partner of a worker killed in the 2024 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

José Mynor López was one of six construction workers killed when the bridge collapsed after being struck by a cargo vessel in 2024. The crew had been working an overnight road maintenance shift filling potholes. López's body was the last of the six to be recovered, two months after the accident. The six men were from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.

Guerra Sandoval met López in 2016 in the United States. They had a U.S. citizen daughter who was seven years old at the time of the article. The daughter is Guerra Sandoval's sole caretaker, making her eligible for immigration relief programs.

After the bridge collapse, the Biden administration offered immigration protections to about 30 people with immediate connections to the victims. Officials approached dozens of family members of those killed and encouraged them to apply for programs providing limited protection from deportation.

Rachel Girod, an immigration attorney representing Guerra Sandoval and four other clients related to victims of the collapse, said her client had come forward on the basis of government assurances. "With the promise that, 'In you giving us this information, we're going to give you a work permit.' And instead, what they gave her is a hearing in front of an immigration judge with a deportation charge against her," Girod said.

Girod also addressed the agency's current enforcement approach. "And when everybody is a priority, the person convicted of some of the most heinous crimes that a person can be convicted of — is just as much a priority as the mother of a child who lost her father in a national tragedy," she said.

A former USCIS official from the Biden era said the agency maintains policies to provide relief to people facing emergencies or unforeseen circumstances. "The terrible tragedy of the collapse of the Baltimore bridge fell in this category, and USCIS reviewed expedited requests from survivors and their families with great care and on a case-by-case basis," the former official said.

The Trump administration has increased arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants toward a goal of deporting one million people per year, and has removed legal protections previously available to immigrants who had relied on Biden-era and earlier programs. USCIS has slowed processing of immigration applications, and nearly 250,000 applications experienced months-long delays before being opened.