On a party line vote, the Baltimore County Council Monday night approved two pieces of legislation designed to protect the county’s non-U.S. citizens.
Before casting their no votes, the three Republicans on the seven member, Democratically-controlled council said nothing about one of the bills that prohibits county employees from helping ICE agents.
The four Democrats, including Pat Young, voted for it.
Young, who is running for county executive said, “Fear has become currency. People are encouraged to see one another not as neighbors but as threats. When the national conversation becomes that toxic, local government has a moral duty to steady the ground beneath their own feet.”
Democrat Izzy Patoka, who sponsored the legislation and is also running for county executive, said immigrant communities are living in fear.
“We have to fight back at the local level,” Patoka said. “And that’s what we’re going to do here. So we’re going to put guardrails up against ICE activities in Baltimore County and also guardrails up in terms of how much our agencies can engage with ICE.”
In a statement to WYPR after the vote, Republican David Marks said the last several Baltimore County Executives, all Democrats, had developed a framework for working with the federal government.
“I have grave concerns about the consequences of severing that relationship,” Marks said.
During the council meeting, Marks did question the need for the second bill, which also passed 4-3, that codifies the county’s office of Immigrant Affairs.
“There’s never been any danger to this office,” Marks said. “I can’t recall any council member ever voting against this office.”
Patoka said codifying it would keep a new county executive from coming in and deciding “that they did not want the office.”
Marks replied, “A new county executive could come in and fund the office at one dollar.”
The two bills now go to County Executive Kathy Klausmeier, a Democrat, who will decide whether to sign or veto the legislation.
In a statement after Monday night’s vote, Dakarai Turner, Klausmeier’s press secretary, said the legislation prohibiting county employees from helping ICE would not change county policies and operations in any way.
Turner said it “affirms existing policies and practices in County government. Baltimore County does not enforce immigration law or ask about immigration or citizenship status unless required by state or federal law.”
Patoka promised to introduce legislation at a protest in November over the county’s decision to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Homeland Security.
“We should not encourage masked individuals with heavy weapons to enter our public buildings, our schools, our faith-based institutions, our places or worship,” Patoka said. “That is not what we ought to be agreeing to. But folks I think that's what we agreed to."
The MOU says the county must contact ICE before someone with a federal immigration detainer or a judicial warrant is released. Then ICE will decide whether it will take custody of the inmate.
Turner, Klausmeier’s press secretary, said at the time that Patoka was weaponizing misinformation for political purposes.
“The mere suggestion that this agreement invites masked and armed people into our schools or places of worship evokes disturbing imagery and stirs painful memories,” Turner said in a statement. “Spreading misinformation does nothing to make people safe, it is instead a disservice to the people of Baltimore County and a devaluation of responsible discourse.”
