BALTIMORE — Baltimore City Council is taking steps towards limiting ICE in the area.
WATCH: Baltimore City Council is taking a step at limiting ICE in the city.
Council President Zeke Cohen said Baltimore is bursting with different cultures.
"[To] hear different languages being spoken, and go to the Peruvian chicken spot, or the Pollo Rico, or the Di Pasquale's," Cohen said.
But Cohen along with other council members say private detention centers would threaten that diversity.
Monday, members introduced a bill that would ban private detention facilities in the city.
"We know that when prisons are privatized, it creates a profit motive to incarcerate more people. We don't want that in the city of Baltimore."
The city's actions are similar to bills in Howard and Baltimore County councils aimed at pushing back against ICE.
This came after members and other Maryland lawmakers toured the Baltimore ICE facility.
Legislators spoke out against what they call inhumane conditions.
"The way it's carried out right now is intentionally cruel, intentionally inhumane. That's part of it, it's not by accident, not because somebody wasn't following the rules, it's by design," Councilman Mark Parker said.
He said it would be even worse in private centers.
Councilwoman Odette Ramos told us that this is a deeply personal issue.
"For members of my community to be separated from their families, ripped from the arms of their loved ones just because we look different and speak a different language is really horrible, and we're not going to have anything to do with it," Ramos said.
If passed, the council would enforce it using zoning codes.
Cohen told us that the council will take any chance they have to legally push back.
"We do not believe that packing people into private prisons is a good use for the city of Baltimore."
The bill now moves to the Land Use and Transportation Committee for a hearing on April 16th.
WMAR-2 News reached out to DHS for comment, but we haven't heard back at the time of publication.
