Montgomery County, Maryland, has approved an order forbidding local officials from inquiring about a person’s immigration status and banning cooperation with federal immigration agents, “in what advocates say is the strongest action taken in support of undocumented immigrants in the Washington region,” The Washington Post reports.
“That means they cannot allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers into nonpublic spaces in government buildings or give them access to individuals in county government custody—unless they are in possession of a court order or criminal warrant.” There are already some local policies in place meant to protect immigrant communities, but they haven’t always been followed because advocates have said “they’ve heard of instances of undocumented immigrants being arrested and deported after interacting with local police.”
This order—a huge victory for local advocacy groups like CASA—changes that, and officials who commit any violations will face disciplinary action. “Now, we’ve laid it out in an executive order, so it has the force of law,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. “It’s not just symbolic that I did this. This legally codifies what I said I was going to do, and residents can have this assurance.”
Assurance is what families need, and they’re not getting any of that from the federal government, which is only increasing the power of unshackled federal immigration agents. In fact, the Trump administration’s policies have created a safe haven for abusers and actual criminals, because many in the immigrant and Latinx communities have stopped reporting when they’ve been victims of crime, fearful police could turn them over to ICE.
There are steps that localities can take to protect their residents from mass deportation agents, and that includes implementing a policy like Montgomery County’s. ”Jim Huang, a member of the Montgomery County chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, said it is ‘a very, very positive step forward.’”