Democrats sought to limit state participation in federal immigration policy Thursday, as Republicans railed against the left for what they classified as misinformation.

The Maryland Values Act, or House Bill 1222, would prohibit state or local jurisdictions from entering into new immigration enforcement agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Those with existing agreements would be required to terminate them by July 1.

Del. Nicole Williams, a Prince George’s County Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation would not prohibit law enforcement from cooperating with valid ICE warrants for people convicted of crimes of violence.

Under federal 287(g) programs, ICE can partner with state and local law enforcement to identify and process people who have entered the United States illegally.

Currently, the only Maryland jurisdictions with active 287(g) agreements are Frederick, Harford and Cecil counties. Carroll County has a pending agreement with the federal government to participate in the program.

A Harford County Sheriff’s Office representative said Thursday that the jurisdiction’s program is only enforced when people are arrested and in a local jail.

Williams said the 287(g) program is a mechanism to “terrorize” and create “a fear of cooperation” between law enforcement and Maryland’s immigrant communities.

Del. Lauren Arikan, a Republican from Harford County, said that immigrants in her community are not afraid of talking to the police, pointing to a 2017 mass shooting at a Harford County workplace.

“They proudly came forward,” Arikan said. “They were not afraid of our county. They were not afraid of 287(g). They both resided in our county, they were buried in our county, and they proudly came to live in our county, and they came forward to help with crime in our county.”

Arikan said the immigrants who spoke to police were offered U Visas, which are given to non-U.S. citizens who are victims of certain crimes and offer assistance to the police in solving them. Del. Jared Solomon and Sen. Malcolm Augustine, both Democrats, are sponsoring legislation this session to reduce the amount of time that certifying entities can consider granting U Visas.

In response to Arikan’s vignette, Williams said that she is “glad to hear” that there are people in Harford County who are willing to participate with law enforcement, but, in her own community, she has “constituents and neighbors and residents who are scared [expletive] right now.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Arikan said. “I think it’s probably because of the outlandish commentary coming from the left about what the policy actually is.”

Her response was interrupted by laughter from people in the House Judiciary Committee room.

Ama S. Frimpong, the legal director of CASA Maryland, said that, as a Black woman and an immigrant, she found Arikan’s remarks “very offensive” and dismissive of what immigrant communities are facing currently.

“This legislation comes at a critically important time in our country,” Williams said. “As Marylanders, we are in the backyard of a federal administration that’s wasted no time in targeting and uprooting individuals who live in my community and in your community.”

Since entering office in January, President Donald Trump has issued multiple executive orders targeting immigrants, making promises to increase deportations through ICE enforcement activity and end birthright citizenship — a right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

According to the Associated Press, four federal judges have blocked Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship.

In additional response to Trump’s expanded immigration enforcement policies, Solomon, Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Will Smith, and House Ways and Means Committee Vice Chair Jheanelle Wilkins — all Montgomery County Democrats — are sponsoring the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, which would limit ICE’s access to schools, hospitals, courthouses and places of worship.

Frimpong said that, under the second Trump administration, Black and brown Marylanders are “being targeted with renewed, aggressive and cruel intensity.” She said it destroys trust between immigrants and law enforcement, resulting in fewer reported crimes, increased racial profiling and diverted police resources.

“Our community is afraid, and rightly so,” said Frimpong. “287(g) feeds into this machinery of fear, and Maryland must not be complicit in this.”

According to Stephanie Wolf, the director of the criminal immigration services division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, 287(g) programs do not give jurisdictions the discretion to determine when ICE arrests are appropriate, meaning people charged with low-level crimes would be subject to detainers.

“It funnels the innocent and those who have committed minor offenses into the deportation pipeline,” she said, noting that these programs allow for the arrest of people being released from local jails. “That is not typically where you find people who have been convicted of serious crimes.”

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