BALTIMORE — The Baltimore City Council unanimously passed a bill Monday to prevent city cooperation with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Safe Spaces and Community bill, introduced in February, prevents city entities from entering into agreements for detaining people based on civil immigration charges, enforcing federal immigration laws, using city resources to assist in enforcing federal immigration law, or allowing ICE agents to enter nonpublic spaces.
Baltimore Police officers will be prohibited from helping with ICE operations or arresting individuals based on immigration status.
The bill also prevents discrimination based on immigration status by the city, ICE agents from accessing people detained by city entities, use of city buildings by ICE agents for immigration enforcement, and ICE from receiving information from the city about someone facing immigration enforcement action unless the individual consents.
“We are not going to leave our neighbors to be harassed and discriminated against by rogue ICE agents,” City Council President Zeke Cohen said before the bill was passed.
ICE vehicles were spotted in a city garage earlier this year, before they were moved to an ICE facility that was recently purchased by ICE near Hagerstown.
ICE agents have been involved in violent incidents within the past year, including the shooting deaths of 37-year-olds Renee Good and Alex Pretti within less than a month of each other in Minnesota. Baltimoreans gathered in front of the George H. Fallon Building to protest these shootings earlier this year.
Maryland politicians, including Mayor Brandon Scott and members of City Council, visited the ICE holding facility last month, finding no detainees. The council introduced a bill soon after, calling for detention centers to be effectively banned from Baltimore.
“Our immigrant communities are living in fear right now,” Councilmember Odette Ramos said in a statement. “The passage of the Safe Spaces and Communities Act sends a strong message that BPD will not cooperate with ICE, and that our agencies will protect our residents when they are in city facilities. We must do everything in our power to hold back the terror that ICE is engaging in our communities.”
Baltimore County has taken the opposite approach to Baltimore City, embracing ICE and agreeing to help with federal immigration enforcement. Gov. Wes Moore passed a bill banning local police and correction officers from signing ICE agreements, but local agencies may still decide for themselves.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said the City Council’s passage of the bill does not affect the administration’s focus on enforcing immigration law.
“ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities — local officials should work with them, not against them,” Jackson said in an email to The Baltimore Sun. “Anyone doing otherwise is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens. The Trump Administration will not waver on enforcing federal immigration law no matter how much Democrat politicians try to obstruct us.”
Cohen said Baltimore does not need ICE operating in city limits.
“In this moment, we are experiencing record declines in violent crime,” Cohen said. “The message from the 74th City Council is crystal-clear: We do not need you to assist with our efforts to keep this city safe.”
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