ANNAPOLIS–Sheriff Chuck Jenkins’ signature accomplishment in Frederick County is a controversial program that lets him collaborate with ICE to take undocumented people into the agency’s custody.
But now state lawmakers are thinking about banning that kind of ICE partnership, touching off a behind-the-scenes campaign by Jenkins this winter to buff up the program’s reputation.
He’s arguing in private meetings that the program allows local officers to do the job of ICE agents, lowering both the federal agency’s workload and the likelihood of community immigration raids.
At a time when President Donald Trump’s administration is threatening retribution against cities and states that don’t support its immigration agenda, Jenkins says that a high-profile ban against an ICE program would invite scrutiny—as well as increased federal enforcement operations.
Over the past few months, the Department of Homeland Security has intensified immigration enforcement in cities like New York, Chicago, New Orleans and Charlotte—all areas, the department says, with local “sanctuary policies.” The agency has increasingly relied on Customs and Border Patrol officers, despite advocates’ objections. Those agents, the ACLU says, are more aggressive, and have a track record of human rights violations at the nation’s border.
Maryland sheriffs have become some of ICE’s most prolific partners. The percentage of ICE arrests in the state that originate within the 287(g) program are higher than most other areas in the country, as CNS previously reported.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office remains ICE’s most active partner under the 287(g) program in Maryland. Of the 170 total custody transfers recorded across the state’s participating detention centers since Trump was inaugurated, more than half—92—originated at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center.
But that doesn’t mean street arrests don’t happen in the state. The analysis, which used data obtained from the Deportation Data Project, found that even though eight counties in Maryland collaborate with ICE, the agency still regularly arrests immigrants on the street.
Since Trump took office back in January, over 2,000 people have been arrested by ICE agents in Maryland communities. Over 70% of those immigrants, the analysis found, had no prior criminal convictions. Only 170 people were taken into ICE custody through partnership programs in the state. More than half of those people had prior criminal convictions.
Advocates are concerned
Jenkins argues that by allowing the partnership program, called 287(g) after the section of immigration law that created it, to continue, Maryland might insulate itself from an increase in ICE street arrests.
“I think it would be a lot better for the immigrant communities not to have to endure this if jurisdictions simply work with ICE in 287(g) programs and turn the criminals over to them in our jails,” he told CNS.
But some lawmakers and immigration advocates say that’s too high a price to pay. The Maryland House of Delegates Democratic Caucus in November posted a video to Instagram that said the program was cruel and inhumane, and called for its end in the state.
Maryland Del. Nicole Williams, a Democrat who represents part of Prince George’s County, has pledged to re-introduce legislation from last session that would do just that.
Williams said she isn’t convinced by Jenkins’ arguments. The Department of Homeland Security has launched high-profile immigration enforcement campaigns in states where law enforcement enthusiastically participates in the 287(g) program, like Louisiana, she said.
She said the 287(g) program harms immigrants and could cause crimes to go unreported.
“They don’t know if they can trust their local police to not, in turn, contact ICE,” Williams told CNS. “If a crime is committed in their neighborhood, they want to be able to report that crime. If they’re a victim of crime, they want to be able to feel comfortable going to the police.”
Yanet Amanuel, public policy director at the ACLU of Maryand, agreed.
“Consenting in advance to President Trump’s authoritarian agenda will not keep our communities safe,” she said in a statement. “This administration’s priorities are not Maryland’s priorities and do not reflect our values of treating everyone who calls Maryland home with dignity and respect.”
Even though last year’s ban didn’t pass, Amanuel said, Maryland has still been targeted by the Trump administration. The state “still suffered devastating federal spending cuts and mass deportations,” she said. “In the face of more federal threats, Maryland must bravely choose courage and refuse to aid and abet the federal campaign of terror against immigrants.”
Maryland does not currently appear on the Department of Justice’s list of “sanctuary jurisdictions,” which is updated periodically. A version of the list published in August included Baltimore County.
Conservatives praise 287(g)
Jenkins has long supported Trump’s immigration agenda. Under the president’s first administration, during a 2018 appearance on Fox News, Jenkins criticized the idea that ICE agents were heavy-handed, or used inhumane tactics. Under Trump, he said, “the gloves are off, they can now do their jobs.”
In an interview with CNS, he again dismissed the criticism that the Trump administration has misstepped by detaining immigrants with no criminal record, and described the events as “collateral arrests.” But he said that the 287(g) program presented an “orderly” alternative to the chaotic street raids Marylanders have watched play out across the country, and in the state, over the past few months.
Jenkins argues that the program does not cause the immigrant community to mistrust law enforcement. “Most of the countries where these people are coming from, there’s already a distrust of police,” he said, “because those countries are corrupt.”
State Sen. Michael McKay, who represents Allegany, Garrett and Washington counties, met with Jenkins earlier this fall to learn more about the 287(g) program. He bought the sheriff’s argument.
“If we outlaw the 287(g) program,” he told CNS, “we are welcoming the federal government to come in with blanket immigration removal.”
The program protects people, McKay said, who have not committed crimes from being thrown into a broad net of ICE arrests “inadvertently.”
“I tend to believe if we’re going to be looking at people who shouldn’t be here, who have heinous crimes, that their exit strategy should be when they’re already in our detention centers. Because if we’re not working with our detention centers, then we’re going to be casting out to the public as a whole,” McKay told CNS. “And I think we might make errors there.”
Even with McKay’s support, Jenkins says he’s not optimistic about the fate of the 287(g) program in Maryland. “This to me is like the Alamo,” he told CNS.
But he’s already preparing his next strategy. “if there’s legislation that passes,” he said, “ I believe there’s a constitutional challenge for that.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.