The Baltimore City Council will consider two new bills that are aimed at protecting city residents from federal immigration officials and protecting their information.
The first bill, requires city agencies to develop and implement a plan to limit ICE activities in Baltimore-owned spaces like schools, parks, libraries and office buildings.
It will also restrict government resources, personnel and funds from being used to coordinate or collaborate with immigration enforcement in the city.
“The core of the bill is around it's taking two existing policies and putting them into city law,” said Councilman Mark Parker, a sponsor of the bill. “The first is an executive order that's been updated over the years by our mayors, and certainly by Mayor Brandon Scott whose leadership has been very steadfast in this regard and very clear. The other is Baltimore Police Department policy around specific interactions with immigration enforcement, both the kind of on the street and in other ways. It's taking those existing policies and putting the force of law behind them and allowing the City Council to affirm those policies, strengthen them.”
The second bill urges the state to restrict ICE activity.
Both houses of the General Assembly have approved their own versions of legislation that would keep local law enforcement from partnering with ICE.
However, Gov. Wes Moore has yet to commit to signing it.
The General Assembly is also considering another bill that would restrict ICE agents from wearing masks.
All of this comes as the Department of Homeland Security recently bought a warehouse in Hagerstown that it may transform into an immigration detention facility.
The deed, signed Jan. 22, shows the property was purchased from FRND-Hopewell, LLC for $102.4 million and could hold as many as 1,500 people.
Moore wrote a letter to DHS last week expressing concern about that facility and the conditions of the facility in Baltimore.
“ICE has been essentially holding people in cages, not giving people access to their medications, to medical care, not giving sufficient food and water or beds,” said Adinia Applebaum, the program director at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “People have to sleep on the bare floor without mattresses.”
Washington County opposed the sale in a statement.
“It is Washington County’s position that decisions about land use are best made locally. However, the legal reality when property is owned by the Federal Government is clear. Washington County is not able to legally restrict the federal government’s ability to proceed. DHS has not notified Washington County that a purchase has taken place.”
Meanwhile, other Maryland jurisdictions are trying to think ahead as well.
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball signed two emergency bills into law last week that ban privately-owned buildings from becoming detention centers and limit ICE access in the county.
