In 2017, then-Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz signed an executive order, in part to protect immigrants who are in the county jail from federal authorities.
That order remains in place.
But there are those who believe that executive order is threatened by a recently signed agreement between the county and Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE.
The order states that no one in the county jail will be detained beyond their court-ordered release date unless there is a criminal warrant signed by a judicial official.
During the 2017 signing ceremony for the order Kamenetz said that “the existence of a written executive order is going to give people in the community assurances and security.”
Fast forward to 2025 and Baltimore County says there is nothing new here. The Memorandum of Understanding or MOU with ICE puts on paper what they’ve been doing at the county jail since last year.
But there are sharp differences of opinion about whether that executive order and the MOU with ICE can coexist.
David Rocah, senior staff attorney with the Maryland American Civil Liberties Union, said the 2024 policy that the MOU is tied to states that the county can hold inmates for ICE beyond their release date, either up to four hours or two days depending on the type of detainer.
Speaking at a rally against the MOU in Towson last week, Rocah called it a betrayal of Kamenetz’s executive order.
At last week’s protest there was anger that the county would cut any kind of deal with ICE. There were signs that said things like “Democracy Not Dictatorship” and “Neighbors Not Targets.”
“We should not encourage masked individuals with heavy weapons to enter our public buildings, our schools, our faith-based institutions, our places or worship,” said Baltimore County Councilman Izzy Patoka, a Democrat. “That is not what we ought to be agreeing to. But folks I think that’s what we agreed to.”
Read full article: Baltimore County defends ICE memorandum as consistent with Kamenetz’s 2017 executive order | WYPR
