In a game-changing move, Montgomery County, Maryland, Executive Marc Elrich recently partially revoked an executive order that prohibited local authorities from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The county’s revised policy will now honor detainers and allow ICE agents to apprehend illegal aliens in “identified areas” in the county’s jails. ICE issues detainers on criminal illegal aliens who are eligible for removable from the United States after serving their sentence in jail.
In July, Elrich signed “The Promoting Community Trust Executive Order,” which denied county police from cooperating and sharing information with ICE agents. Unfortunately, this decision backfired and in just over a month, at least eight illegal aliens in Montgomery County were charged with committing violent sex crimes:
Not only were all eight individuals living in the country illegally, but several of them had already been ordered removed by immigration authorities.
The one-month period of criminal illegal alien activity in the county is not an aberration, however. Between June 2017 and June 2018, Montgomery County experienced a 67 percent increase in gang-related crime often attributed to illegal aliens in the MS-13 gang.
The county’s partial reversal of its sanctuary laws can be attributed to a coalition of community members, immigration activists, and political figures who exposed the consequences of sanctuary policies.
A several hundred-person rally in the county in mid-September, combined with national news stories, undoubtedly pressured Elrich to reassess his order.
Montgomery County’s new willingness to cooperate with immigration officials is positive example of community activism that should serve as a model for other counties nationwide. Citizens across the country must work collectively to place public safety over radical political agendas that undermine federal law and decrease public safety.
