Howard County Council passes emergency ICE bills

HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — Following a week of meetings and rounds of testimony from neighbors, the Howard County Council passed two anti-ICE bills.

Before voting, Councilwoman Deb Jung thanked the neighbors who had shown up to share why they loved the county.

"And why they worry about themselves and their neighbors in light of the extra judicial ice activity that has taken place around this country," Jung said.

One of the bills would prevent private detention centers, spurred from a private company renovating a building into a detention center in Elkridge.

The county revoked the permit.

Council members voted unanimously, agreeing a facility like that shouldn't be where it's located near schools and healthcare facilities.

An ICE spokesperson sent WMAR-2 News a statement saying,

"There are no plans to open a detention center or purchase a facility in Howard County, Maryland.

“While we cannot get into contract specifics, Secretary Noem has stated that she is willing to work with officials on both sides of the aisle to expand detention space to help ICE law enforcement carry out the largest deportation effort in American history."

There was more back and forth over the second bill, which would establish guidance for what county employees should do when encountering ICE.

Council members David Yungmann and Liz Walsh went back and forth over the legislation.

Yungmann called it an assault on Howard County employees.

"A librarian that has to come face to face with ice and demand their badge number, a 20-year-old contingent employee running a summer camp, and a parent works for ice and comes in to pick up their kid," he said, "This bill was put together in secret. We've never even had a conversation with Human Resources about this bill."
But in the end, the bill still passed.

Tina Horn with Luminus Network told us she's thrilled.

"I think the immigrants in our community are probably going to breathe a sigh of relief tonight in Howard County, and their allies, our neighbors, there's a lot of relief," Horn said.

But she said it's just a step and there's much more work to do for people to feel safe in the county.

"There's still such significant racial profiling going on, and I think that these two bills are not going to put a complete stop to that. I think they are going to begin to help."
County Executive Calvin Ball will be signing the first bill into law on Friday.