County Executive Steuart Pittman was on the road this past week to defend his decision to stop participating in a controversial immigration program that trained corrections officials to screen county jail inmates for immigration violations and send immigration status information to federal authorities.At a town hall meeting on Monday in Glen Burnie — with another held later in the week — Pittman said other programs already do the job of 287(g), but have federal employees doing the work.

The county executive, a Democrat who was elected in November, has argued that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials already know who is in custody within an hour of a person being arrested. According to ICE’s website, jurisdictions send fingerprints of arrested individuals to the FBI.

Through the Secure Communities program, which was reinstituted in 2017 through an executive order by President See PITTMAN, page 6