Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins had already served his sentence, paid his restitution, and was ready to go home to his children in Baltimore. Instead, he spent nearly nine months longer in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, recovering from a gunshot wound ICE agents inflicted during a Christmas Eve traffic stop in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

Sousa-Martins came to the United States from Portugal at age 13, grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and built a life in Baltimore as a licensed general contractor and homeowner. On Christmas Eve, ICE agents targeted him during an immigration enforcement operation. According to ICE, he refused to shut off his engine, rammed several ICE vehicles, and drove toward officers before he was shot. He survived, and in April he pleaded guilty in federal court to damaging government property. A judge sentenced him to time served, 103 days, and $1,000 in restitution.

That sentence should have closed the case. Instead, ICE kept him in civil immigration detention for months longer, separated from his children, until a federal district court judge finally ordered his release this month.

No independent, public accounting has been given for why ICE agents used deadly force during a traffic stop, or why Sousa-Martins remained behind bars long after the criminal justice system considered his debt paid. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE leadership should launch an independent investigation into the shooting and explain why his civil detention continued after his sentence had already ended.

Families like Sousa-Martins' deserve answers, not more uncertainty. Sign the petition to demand DHS and ICE investigate this shooting and end the practice of detaining people well past the sentences courts have already imposed.