Immigrant advocates rally for Md. bill to ban formal partnerships with ICE
'Yes We Can!' they chanted in Spanish and French, holding signs that declared 'Immigrants Make America Great' and 'MARYLAND NOT MAGA.'
Then, one of their targets — Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher (D-Montgomery County) — walked by, and together they yelled: 'Pass the bill!'
The bill in question, the Maryland Values Act, would ban counties in the state from entering into collaborative agreements with U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement that make it easier for the agency to arrest and deport people it says are in the country illegally.
Those programs, known as 287(g) partnerships, have more than doubled in popularity since President Donald Trump's inauguration in January, according to an ICE database. Four of those partnerships were recently signed in Maryland, bringing the state's total number of participating counties to seven.
While the House of Delegates passed the bill last month, the legislation has stalled in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Senate lawmakers heard arguments on the bill for the first time last week. The committee's chairman, Sen. Will Smith (D-Montgomery) said he was in favor of ending 287(g) agreements, but has yet to schedule a vote on the proposal.
At the rally Tuesday morning, one woman called directly on Senate President Bill Ferguson to support the Maryland Values Act. A resident of his legislative district in Baltimore City, the woman said she worries that her husband won't come home one day. He works construction in counties that have 287(g) partnerships with ICE, she said.
'History will judge us for how we respond to this moment,' said Glenda, whom The Post is identifying only by first name. 'I hope that I can look back and say that my Senator and the leaders of this General Assembly stood on the right side of history.'
While CASA has called for the General Assembly 'clean' bill that does not include any mandated cooperation with ICE, the House of Delegates took a more moderate approach.
The Maryland Values Act, sponsored by Del. Nicole Williams (D-Prince George's) would ban formal 287(g) partnerships while mandating a different kind of cooperation with ICE. Under the House proposal, Maryland officials at local jails and state prisons would be required to notify ICE when undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of certain crimes are about to be released.
'We have seven days to make this happen, y'all,' Williams said at the rally. 'We need the Senate to act now.'
Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery County), the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and an immigrant from Jamaica, said the 'clock is ticking' and that 'every day we wait is another day that our immigrant communities are at risk.'
'I've got bad news and I've got some good news. The bad news is that in the state of Maryland we cannot control Trump's immigration policies,' Wilkins told the demonstrators at the rally. 'But guess what? Here in the state of Maryland, we can do our part to protect our communities. And that includes ending the 287(g) agreements that are taking place all across our state.'
Other speakers included Steuart Pittman, county executive of Anne Arundel County, where 287(g) are already banned, and Frederick City Council President Katie Nash, whose county sheriff's office has the longest standing 287(g) partnership in the nation. Maryland has a Democratic supermajority, she said, and should use that political power to push the Maryland Values Act across the finish line.
When two members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee walked by the rally on their way to the statehouse, attendees called out for their support.
One man yelled at Waldstreicher, the committee's vice chair, to 'end 287(g)!' And Sen. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George's) was beckoned into the rally throngs and offered the microphone to speak. He quoted scripture and spoke of 'justice.'
'Sometimes I have to remind my Democratic brothers and sisters back here that we are not Republicans,' Muse said.
'I'm with you on your issues,' he continued. 'I've take a lot of knocks and bumps. I might lose some bills because of this. But he who fights and runs and goes away lives to fight another day. I know I'm standing for what is right.'
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