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Trio of immigration bills face little opposition, cruise through Judiciary hearing

Republicans did their best to challenge a series of immigrant-protection bills before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday but they were easily outgunned by Democrats, and by a total lack of witnesses testifying against any of the measures.

Even Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6th) and David Trone, the Democrat who held the 6th District seat and is looking to unseat McClain Delaney this fall, were in agreement on one of the bills, that would ban detention centers in any building that was not designed specifically for that purpose. The bill comes as some Washtngton County residents are fighting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement proposal to convert a Williiamsport warehouse into a detention center.

“This building was designed to hold goods. Not people,” Trone said.

Other bills heard Wednesday included a measure that would prohibit Maryland police agencies from anyone who has worked as a sworn officer for ICE, and another that would prohibit state authorities from knowingly aiding ICE and Department of Homeland Security officials unless the federal officials presented a judicial warrant.

The ICE Breaker Act

Muhammad Algali never received formal communication about his mother’s whereabouts after she was detained during a routine ICE check-in last year.

“I did not receive a phone call. I did not receive any official government communication,” the Bowie resident said. “I found out through international news that my mother had been taken across the Atlantic Ocean, deported to another continent.”

[Maryland ramps up legal action against federal immigration facilities]

Algali was testifying in favor of House Bill 832, Del. Adrian Boafo’s (D-Prince George’s) so-called ICE Breaker Act that would prohibit Maryland State Police from hiring anyone who has been recruited to work for ICE since President Donald Trump took office last year. Boafo testified that this bill would place guardrails on individuals coming directly from the current recruiting class and trying to join the State Police.

“Our state has long benefited from federal employees who complete their service, get vested and continue serving,” Boafo said. “But frankly, this situation is different.”

Del. Nino Mangione (R-Baltimore and Carroll) noted that nearly a third of all ICE employees are veterans, a group which the state has previously spent tens of millions of dollars to encourage their hiring.

“Is it your intent with a bill like this to tell our veterans – which there are thousands of them in ICE right now – ‘Don’t come to Maryland. We’re not hiring’?’” Mangione asked.

Boafo said the bill doesn’t discourage the hiring of veterans, but instead sets a hiring preference for the State Police. He also noted that his bill will still allow former ICE employees to be hired in other sectors of state government.

Boafo acknowledged that opponents of the bill often question its constitutionality, but that he reached out to the Attorney General’s office and was told lawyers there who reviewed the bill don’t believe it violates Maryland’s constitution.

Del. Frank Conaway (D-Baltimore City), in a heated outburst, asked if Boafo and the panelists consider all ICE agents to be racist, or if they’re just “following orders.”

Boafo said Algali is entitled to his own opinions, and started to say that two things can be true at once when Conaway interrupted and said, “You’re putting your words in another man’s mouth, so why don’t you let him answer the question?”

Boafo said it’s not his personal opinion that every ICE agent recruited during Trump’s second term is racist, but that they would “be bad for state police in the future.”

Algali then answered, saying that he believed a high percentage of ICE agents hired under the current administration are racist.

Clamping down on converted detention centers

Del. Matthew Schindler’s (D–Washington and Frederick) House Bill 630 would ban the operation of a detention facility in any structure not originally designed for processing or holding detained individuals.

“Facilities used to detain individuals, whether for criminal or civil matters, should have appropriate standards for safety, oversight and humane treatment,” Schindler testified. “Buildings such as warehouses, abandoned factories or closed schools were not designed for custodial housing.”

Delaney’s legislative counsel, Andrew Donlon, said, “The terror, lawlessness and indignities, inflicted upon communities [by ICE] across the country, go against our Maryland values.”

Trone said the site of the proposed Washington County ICE detention center is not a sufficient to hold detained individuals.

Del. Lauren Arikan (R–Baltimore and Harford) noted that if Schindler’s bill prevented the construction of ICE detention facilities in Maryland, it would just mean that immigrants picked up here would have to be shipped to detention centers farther from their homes.

In response, Donlon said that Delaney’s opinion, at this point, is that it’s better to limit ICE’s enforcement capabilities.

“Perfection, sometimes, can be the enemy of the good,” Trone chimed in. “We need to stop and fight at every single juncture.”

Del. Susan McComas (R–Harford) asked if the bill would overstep the federal agency’s right to operate a federal facility. Schindler said he reached out to the Attorney General’s office, but was told the answer is inconclusive.

“There is no case law precedent in this instance in Maryland,” the bill sponsor said.

Donlon said the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution could serve as an avenue for the state to fight back against the legality of a detention facility if it’s violating fundamental human rights and constitutional rights.

Mangione asked about jobs that would come with a detention center, saying he saw in an article that the Washington County project could bring upwards of 1,100 jobs to Williamsport, a town of about 2,000.

[Maryland lawmakers make surprise visit to Baltimore ICE facility]

“That’s almost half the population with the potential of having some type of work,” Mangione said.

Schindler said there could be a slight economic benefit from the detention facility, but noted that there is currently no guarantee that any jobs there would go to residents. But that would come with a “huge loss in tax revenue,” from taking the faciity off the property tax rolls.

“The facility in the first year of operation would have gained about $2 million in property tax, and then about $700,000 a year subsequently,” he said,

Additionally, the facility would require significant infrastructure upgrades, like improving the roads leading to the facility, most of which would fall upon Washington County taxpayers, Schindler said.

A bill to MELT the ICE

The last of the three bills was House Bill 1536, the Maryland Enforcement Limits and Transparency (MELT) Act, sponsored by Del. Lesley Lopez (D–Montgomery). Her bill would prohibit Marylanders in state positions from knowingly aiding ICE officials in any capacity, unless presented with an official, judicial warrant.

Lopez said that courts and legal experts have continued to recognize that internal administrative warrants, often used by ICE administrators, do not carry the same constitutional authority as judicial warrants.

“HB 1536 provides a simple and responsible solution,” Lopez said.

Ninfa Amador-Hernandez, a policy manager for the Maryland chapter of We Are CASA, testified that the MELT Act fills a significant gap in the federal administration, “accountability for civil and constitutional violations.”

Amador-Hernandez also said her bill would only further aid the state in upholding the Fourth Amendment and is paramount to due process.

“Maryland is proud of our immigrant communities,” Lopez said. “Like any other Marylander, they’re entitled to the protections of our Constitution.”

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