Baltimore County’s recent agreement with federal immigration authorities is spurring fear among residents and activists, some of whom are calling for greater transparency and change amid confusion about the document’s implications.
The agreement, signed by county and federal officials in late October, requires the county to notify the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore before releasing people from jail who are subject to federal immigration detainers or warrants signed by a judge. It is not, however, a formal 287(g) agreement with ICE, which deputizes local law enforcement to enforce immigration law.
Signing the agreement resulted in the county’s removal from the Department of Justice’s list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” — places President Donald Trump’s administration identifies as having policies, laws or regulations that impede enforcement of federal immigration laws. Baltimore County was the last jurisdiction in Maryland to carry that designation.
County officials say the move takes away the risk of losing federal funding.
But it has sparked an outcry from Baltimore County Council members and candidates for political office, as well as dozens of residents and activists who rallied in Towson to lambast County Executive Kathy Klausmeier’s administration.
Calls for change
Residents gathered outside the old county courthouse Wednesday evening to demand that the county end the agreement and release its communications with federal immigration officials.
“I’ve seen the fear that words like ‘ICE’ can trigger: the silent panic that parents feel dropping their kids at school, the anxiety of a breadwinner heading to work unsure if they’ll return home,” said Maureen Wambui, an immigrant and community advocate. “This MOU doesn’t just impact policy — it impacts people, it impacts families, and the trust we’ve spent years building between communities and local government.”
David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, said the county seemed to be “talking out of both sides of its mouth” in maintaining a 2017 executive order that bars county police or corrections personnel from detaining a person beyond their court-ordered release date unless there’s a criminal warrant signed by a judge, alongside last year’s changes to its correctional policy.
“Both ICE and the county are saying that they’re not changing county practices. If nothing was going to change, why sign anything at all?” he said. “They didn’t do this to increase public safety — they did it to signal obedience to a federal agency known for targeting vulnerable people and spreading fear, and to satisfy political pressure instead of serving the residents who live, work and raise families here.”
Read full article: Frustrations mount with Baltimore County’s ICE agreement: ‘Why sign anything at all?’ – Baltimore Sun
