Montgomery County, Maryland, officials launched a portal allowing residents to report U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.
Such ICE action violates county law.
The portal “is intended as a portal to report potential violations of law by ICE agents (such as wearing a mask, operating in County-owned property, or assault),” county officials explain on a webpage dedicated to laws pertaining to immigration enforcement.
The portal was established by the County Values Act, which went into effect Monday.
The law mandates that a judicial warrant be issued before ICE can access nonpublic parts of county properties and bars the use of county-owned garages and parking lots as staging areas for ICE.
Masks are banned under the Unmask ICE Act, which, despite the specificity in its name, bans face coverings for any federal, state or local law enforcement personnel on duty in Montgomery County.
When making a report to the portal, people are asked to provide the type of violation and where and when it occurred. There are also options to upload photo or video evidence and a choice of whether to keep the tip anonymous.
Federal authorities decried the portal and said the mask ban in particular is illegal.
“ICE tracking portals put the lives of the men and women of law enforcement in danger as they go after terrorists, vicious gangs and violent criminal rings. … We will not abide by unconstitutional mask bans. The Supremacy Clause makes it clear that Maryland’s sanctuary politicians do not control federal law enforcement,” Department of Homeland Security acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Washington’s WJLA-TV.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said at a media briefing Wednesday that the law and portal don’t stop ICE “from making arrests … within the bounds that they’re allowed to do it in. We just said you’re not doing it on our property.”
Montgomery County Council President Natali Fani-Gonzalez added that the laws and the portal are meant to “ensure that we’re not assisting them in any way.”
The state of Maryland has also taken legal action to try and constrain immigration enforcement by passing the Community Trust Act without the signature of Gov. Wes Moore earlier this year.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday to block the law on the grounds that it unlawfully constrains the federal government from enforcing its own laws by restricting how and when local and state law enforcement can work with ICE.
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