TOWSON, Md. — This week, Baltimore County Councilman Izzy Patoka introduced a pair of bills, called the “Trust Act”, in the hopes to counteract the chilling effect ICE’s efforts have had on immigrant populations.

“People are scared to go to their faith-based institution, their church. People in immigrant communities are scared to send their kids to school on some days. And people from immigrant communities are afraid to go to work and to me that’s all unacceptable,” Patoka said.

This comes months after Baltimore County signed a memorandum of understanding with ICE, removing it from a list of Sanctuary jurisdictions.

Currently, the County is required to notify DHS before they release someone with an immigration detainer or signed warrant from a judge.

“I think it sends the wrong message,” Patoka said. “That’s what inspired me.”

As the son of Holocaust survivors, the councilman says the agency’s aggressive measures have struck a reminiscent chord.

“It made me think that, whenever we see hate at that extreme we’ve got to do whatever we can,” he said.

One bill would prohibit county employees from disclosing citizen status to third parties and establish guardrails with how local police can interact with ICE, limiting them to working on task forces limited to criminal, not immigration enforcement, investigations only.

Numbers from the Deportation Data Project show about a third of those arrested by ICE in the last year have no criminal record whatsoever.

A companion bill also would create an Office of Immigrant Affairs, which would in part track the number of requests received by immigration enforcement annually.

Read full article and view video: Baltimore County Council to debate new immigrant protections