Sheriffs have criticized a Maryland bill that would limit law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The bill, HB122, seeks to prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) 287(g) program in the state of Maryland. Under the program, correctional officers may identify and hold non-U.S. citizens for up to two days if requested by ICE.
Several Maryland counties, such as Cecil, Frederick, Harford, Carroll, Garrett, and Washington have formal agreements to cooperate with ICE’s 287(g) program.
“The 287(g) program, is a program that only exists in the jail, not on the street,” Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said, as per WBFF. “We don’t make decisions. We don’t decide who is removed. We don’t decide who is detained. We facilitate a process, that’s all we do.”
Jenkins added that the bill “should be titled the ‘Place Maryland in Danger Act.’ What it’s going to do is invite every criminal, they can’t go to Virginia, can’t go to West Virginia, can’t go to the surrounding jurisdictions, to bring them into Maryland without consequence of being removed and deported from this country.”
The sheriff further explained that the idea that taking action against illegal immigrants damages trust between law enforcement and community members is a faulty argument he hears “all the time.”
“The distrust of law enforcement comes with the people from the countries they’re coming from,” Jenkins stated, CBS News reported. “They can’t trust law enforcement in the countries where they were born and raised. The real fear is not law enforcement, the real fear in these communities are the criminals that are in these communities.”
Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said during a hearing for the bill, “If we lose the ability to have these agreements with ICE, we lose what comes along with it. Which is finding out whether these people are indeed in the country illegally, and recommendations from ICE in relation to national security.”
State Senator William Folden (R) warned the bill risks violating President Donald Trump’s order to withhold funding from “sanctuary jurisdictions.”
“I’m not sure that’s the gauntlet that the state of Maryland should be playing right now with a $3.3 billion deficit already, the loss of federal workers, and now, this is your plan. To continue to advocate for the criminals that prey upon our communities,” the senator said.
