Advocates for immigrants say they are tracking reports of federal agents stopping and detaining undocumented people in the Baltimore area, as fear runs high amid an enforcement crackdown elsewhere in the country.
Even as the courts have halted President Donald J. Trump’s order to block visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently launched a series of targeted enforcement operations in cities across the country, including New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
ICE officials say Maryland wasn’t part of last week’s operations, but agents are continually working to apprehend deportable foreign nationals.
Elizabeth Alex, regional director of immigrant advocacy group CASA of Baltimore, said Monday the Trump administration’s aggressive tone and uncertainty over how immigration laws are being enforced is creating anxiety.
"People are very afraid," she said. "They say, ‘I am scared every day when I go to work that I won’t be able to come back. If I was deported, I don’t know what I would do with my children.’"
The Esperanza Center in Baltimore is seeing many clients seeking help with obtaining passports due to the deportation efforts under the Trump administration.
The Esperanza Center in Baltimore is seeing many clients seeking help with obtaining passports due to the deportation efforts under the Trump administration.
Alex said CASA lawyers are researching cases in which immigrants were allegedly detained after leaving area courthouses for proceedings unrelated to their immigration status or stopped while driving for low-priority offenses.
CASA helped organize a meeting Sunday in Baltimore County that drew more than 60 people — including immigrant college students, undocumented mothers with children and a local therapist who wanted to help.
They talked about increased ICE activity in the country, patterns emerging in the area and actions being taken by local governments.
Some say the concerns are overblown.
Brad Botwin, director of a group called Help Save Maryland, blamed CASA for spreading "panic in the illegal alien community" instead of "allowing ICE to do their job — detaining, arresting and deporting illegal aliens."
Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Monday that "public safety threats" and "convicted criminal aliens and gang members" were targeted in the raids. But he also noted agents went after "individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws," which could include people not convicted of violent crimes.
Kelly said agents in large cities, including Los Angeles and New York, arrested more than 680 people. Of those arrested, he said, about 75 percent had criminal records.
"ICE conducts these kind of targeted enforcement operations regularly and has for many years," Kelly said in a statement. "The focus of these enforcement operations is consistent with the routine, targeted arrests carried out by ICE’s Fugitive Operations teams on a daily basis."
Similar raids took place under the Obama administration. In early 2016, stepped-up enforcement in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina similarly concerned immigrants in Maryland.
Trump, asked Monday about his stalled temporary ban on travel, instead discussed targeting illegal immigrants.
"We’re actually taking people that are criminals, very, very hardened criminals in some cases with a tremendous track record of abuse and problems and we’re getting them out and that’s what I said I would do," Trump said at the White House. "I said at the beginning, we are going to get the bad ones."
A federal judge stayed the travel ban on visitors from the Muslim countries, and a federal appeals court upheld the stay last week.
Protesters marched in Southeast Baltimore Sunday in support of local immigrants. Passing through Highlandtown and the neighborhoods surrounding Patterson Park, the crowds shouted, "No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!"
In the face of the Trump administration’s actions, some local and state elected officials have looked to protect foreign-born residents.
Some Democratic members of the General Assembly are pushing for a law that would dramatically curtail state and local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The proposed legislation would forbid police from detaining immigrants at the request of ICE. It would also bar law enforcement from providing nonpublic information about undocumented immigrants that could be used by federal authorities to locate people, including the timing of an immigrant’s release from jail or a home address. Providing such information is currently voluntary.
The bill also would prohibit local law enforcement from becoming deputized to enforce federal immigration law. Two Maryland counties — Frederick and Harford — have signed such agreements with the federal government under an ICE program known as 287(g).
Similar legislation was was introduced in 2014. It did not pass.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh recently reaffirmed the city’s policy barring city police from asking people their immigration status.
Last week, the Howard County Council passed a bill that limits county employees’ involvement in enforcing federal immigration law and declares the county a safe place for undocumented immigrants. County Executive Allan Kittleman has said he will veto the measure.
In Baltimore County, a police department policy prohibits "biased-based profiling," particularly during traffic stops, in the field and in asset seizure and forfeiture efforts.
"Our officers contact federal immigration officials only when people who have been arrested for a crime are found to be here illegally," police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said in an email.
County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun that he’s taking part in "ongoing dialogue with members of our Hispanic community," and that he’s carefully monitoring national policy.
"While Baltimore County’s policy is very clear, I am keeping all options open," he said.
The Maryland Office of the Public Defender is closely monitoring cases involving immigrants after concerning encounters with ICE, said Nadine Wettstein, who runs the office’s immigration program. Enforcement at area courthouses seems to be accelerating, she said.
A 29-year-old man was apprehended by ICE after a Feb. 3 hearing at a Howard County courthouse, according to his attorney, Ian Anthony. An agent followed him and his lawyer outside of a courtroom after a postponement in a case related to an alleged second-degree assault charge.
The man moved from Colombia about three years ago with his wife and two young children on a student visa, Anthony said. His visa had expired late last year.
Anthony said the ICE agent watched the court proceeding, followed them outside and took the man into custody once they were about 500 feet from the courthouse.
"My client was very surprised and my client’s mother was distraught," Anthony said. "He hadn’t been found guilty of anything. They put him in a back of a van and drove off."
Valerie Twanmoh, who runs Catholic Charities Esperanza Center in Fells Point, said an increasing number of immigrants from across the region are going to the center for help. Fearful of deportation, they are looking to the staff there for help sorting through confusion and angst since Trump’s election in November and his recent executive orders.
"We have seen a significant increase, not only in the number of clients coming in for service, but also in the fear and stress level," Twanmoh said. "People are afraid they are going to be separated from their families, or that they won’t have a means to provide for their family, that they will be sent back to countries where they risk, if not serious injury, death."
The center saw more than 15,000 people last year from about 100 countries, primarily Spanish-speaking immigrants and people born in Africa. The staff can help them designate a power of attorney or obtain a passport for their U.S.-born children, among a host of services.
The center also has been holding "Know your rights" sessions.
Twanmoh said the center is receiving reports that ICE is increasing enforcement using different tactics, such as apprehending people during traffic stops, rather than using warrants to arrest them at work or home.
Baltimore Sun reporters John Fritze and Erin Cox contributed to this article.
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