Dem county executive dings Trump admin over sanctuary jurisdiction designation
In a statement responding to the inclusion of Montgomery County Maryland on a list of sanctuary jurisdictions in the U.S., County Executive Marc Elrich accused the Trump administration of seeking to criminalize immigrants and "create fear."
President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for a list of sanctuary jurisdictions. DHS issued the list on Thursday, the department noted in a post on X.
"We are not in violation of federal law, and we will not be making changes based on political headlines. Montgomery County has always cooperated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in cases involving violent crimes, serious felonies, and threats to public safety. That has been and remains our policy," Elrich said in his statement.
Leadership Shake-up Coming At Ice, Homeland Security Investigations, Sources Say
"This designation, like many other actions taken by this administration, is about criminalizing immigrants, not protecting public safety. We will not be complicit in efforts to stigmatize or target our immigrant communities," the Democrat declared. "These types of announcements are designed to create fear. But we do not govern by fear in Montgomery County. We govern by the law and by our values."
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of an MS-13 member in a press release earlier this month, noting multiple instances of the Montgomery County Detention Center failing to honor immigration detainers for the individual over the years, including just last month.
Read On The Fox News App
"The Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville convicted Amaya of attempted motor vehicle theft April 4, and sentenced him to three years of confinement with two years, five months and 11 days suspended," the release noted of Salvadoran national Nelson Vladimir Amaya-Benitez. "On April 18, the Montgomery County Detention Center again declined to honor ICE's immigration detainer and released Amaya from custody."
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd Names Obstacles In Detaining Migrants Under Trump's Immigration Policies
Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Director Ben Stevenson acknowledged the "error."
"This individual met the criteria we use to notify and coordinate with ICE due to a prior felony conviction and validated gang membership in the DOCR records. We failed to make this notification. We take full responsibility for this error," he said in a statement. "Montgomery County has stated consistently that we cooperate with ICE in cases involving individuals convicted of violent crimes, verified gang members, drug distributors & traffickers and other felony convictions. That policy remains in place."
Trump Administration Sets New Goal Of 3,000 Illegal Immigrant Arrests Daily
Elrich said during a media briefing that "we goofed on our part. We did not make a policy decision to let this person go."
The Trump administration has been aiming to crackdown on illegal immigration and is seeking to remove many individuals from the country after massive numbers of people flowed across the U.S. border during President Joe Biden's administration.Original article source: Dem county executive dings Trump admin over sanctuary jurisdiction designation
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
24 minutes ago
- New York Post
‘60 Minutes' has history of cozy interviews and self-promotion
Beware of those who publicly declare that their stuff doesn't stink. Recently, CBS newsman and '60 Minutes' regular Scott Pelley made news and noise when he seized the close of the venerable program to deliver an appeal, threat or whatever, depending on how one heard it, to CBS News parent Paramount, as it was reportedly preparing to settle a lawsuit brought last year by President Trump over the show's very cozy interview with VP Kamala Harris during last year's presidential campaign. Pelley cited the week's resignation of '60 Minutes' executive producer, Bill Owens, adding, 'Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires. … Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. Advertisement 'He was tough that way, but our parent company Paramount is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it.'
The Hill
35 minutes ago
- The Hill
Puerto Rico is Trump's perfect partner in reshoring
President Trump recently signed an executive order to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the U.S. by streamlining the process for the Food and Drug Administration to approve pharmaceutical manufacturing plants. This is the latest in the Trump administration's agenda to protect national security and create American jobs by promoting the reshoring of critical supply chains that Americans rely on every day. These efforts are coupled with international tariffs to encourage domestic manufacturing. Reshoring pharmaceutical manufacturing is not only dire for American national security, but it could have resounding economic impacts across the country. One U.S. jurisdiction that is ready and in a perfect position to partner in this effort is Puerto Rico, where pharmaceutical manufacturing is already a more than $50 billion industry. With complementary efforts underway in Congress and on the island, the White House should look to Puerto Rico as America's pharmaceutical powerhouse while not trapping the island in its current territory status by hindering a future transition to statehood that would further boost the island's manufacturing ability. As a territory, the island is part of the U.S. customs zone and is not subject to U.S. tariffs, and everything that is made in Puerto Rico is 'Made in the USA.' Yet, that same territory status has limited Puerto Rico's economic development by creating persistent uncertainty, underinvestment and an unequal playing field for economic competition. The territory status is unpopular on the island, and Puerto Rican voters have voted in favor of statehood four consecutive times, most recently last November. Trump and Congress have the opportunity of a generation to leverage the pharmaceutical infrastructure and workforce in Puerto Rico to achieve their agenda while also turbocharging the economy on the island, and they have the perfect ally in Puerto Rico to do it with — the island's Republican Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón. González-Colón is leading an ambitious agenda to reshape the national narrative about the island and its people — and ultimately achieve statehood for Puerto Rico. Aligning with the Trump administration's vision to reshore advanced manufacturing of critical products, she issued an executive order in late March and reached out to top White House officials to offer Puerto Rico's well-established, yet currently underutilized, manufacturing capacity as an economic engine to help grow American prosperity. González-Colón's executive order promotes the relocation of overseas manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and other products to Puerto Rico. Much like Trump's executive order, it eliminates barriers and streamlines the process for businesses to move to the island. This action is complementary to the Medical Manufacturing, Economic Development and Sustainability Act, which was recently reintroduced and incentivizes pharmaceutical manufacturing on the island and throughout economically distressed zones across the United States. The bill is designed to attract business to the island in a way that invests in the people of Puerto Rico. It does this by providing an incentive for medical manufacturing facilities to relocate to economically distressed zones, with an incentive dependent on the number of jobs created to ensure money is flowing back into communities. The incentive itself is based on economic factors and applies to communities throughout the United States — an appropriately wide scope that comports with Trump's strong desire to reshore large amounts of production in a short time frame. By tethering the tax credits to what manufacturers invest directly into wages, salaries and real middle-class benefits, the proposal creates good-paying, quality American jobs. Reshoring to Puerto Rico would mean that critical pharmaceuticals and medical devices, as well as other products that are currently manufactured overseas in China and other nations, would now be produced in America. This would create thousands of well-paying manufacturing jobs that Puerto Rico needs to turbocharge the modest economic progress it's made in recent years. The increased consumer demand on the island would help boost the approximately $70 billion in annual interstate commerce, resulting in more jobs and profits stateside. Puerto Rico is a natural partner in reshoring the medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry within U.S. borders. The island's leaders share in the White House's vision of a more prosperous pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and are working to ensure reshoring efforts do not trap Puerto Rico in its current territory status but instead enable it to reach its full potential as an engine of economic growth and prosperity as a future state of our Union. Manufacturing makes America stronger, especially when it lifts up communities and the hard-working American citizens that make 'Made in the USA' a possibility, including those in Puerto Rico.
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
Trump List of ‘Sanctuary Jurisdictions' Prompts Pushback
The Trump administration's list of U.S. cities and counties deemed uncooperative with federal immigration laws has sparked confusion from some government officials and backlash from others who say they shouldn't have been included. The list, released Thursday, was riddled with spelling mistakes. It named communities that have been supporters of President Trump's immigration crackdown as well as some that have been critical. It has counties and cities in both red and blue states.
