Montgomery Co. firefighters violated law against cooperating with ICE, council member says

A Montgomery County Council member said firefighters violated a county law prohibiting cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they prepared to launch a boat on the Potomac River earlier this week to potentially rescue people fleeing federal immigration agents.

District 5 council member Kristin Mink said the firefighters violated the county’s Trust Act, which prohibits county personnel from voluntarily cooperating with the agency.

Mink said she does not blame firefighters, who had to think fast and were faced with contradictory county rules. Such unanticipated scenarios are something the council needs to think through, she said.

“It highlights the need for us to be better prepared for these highly unusual situations,” she said. “We should have done more to avoid the perception of collaboration with ICE.”

Counties and cities across Maryland are faced with a similar dilemma. Many have banned first responders from cooperating with ICE. But police, fire and rescue personnel are still obligated to answer calls to protect lives — even if those calls come from the federal agents they are supposed to avoid.

On Wednesday morning, Park Police at the scene with ICE agents on the Clara Barton Parkway called the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service after several people sprang from a vehicle and ran toward the Potomac.

Park Police called 911 and said, “We have people in the Potomac River and they need rescuing,” Assistant Chief David Pazos said earlier this week. “We had boats in the water ready to assist.”

ICE agents were with county rescue workers who were preparing to launch a boat into the river, Pazos said.

Mink said that shouldn’t have happened.

“This should not be an indication that the county is in any way collaborating with ICE, or that ... residents need to fear that we’re going to be involved in ICE operations.”

Pazos said the department was notified that “all parties were out of the water” and that no rescue was necessary. During the incident, two people were taken into custody, and a search for the third person was called off, according to NBC4.

Mink said Wednesday’s incident put firefighters in a difficult position. They are required to abide by the Trust Act, which forbids them from cooperating with ICE. But she said they are also required by the county to have law enforcement with them if those they are called to rescue from the water are involved in a law enforcement operation.

Pazos declined to comment on Mink’s assertion that firefighters violated the Trust Act.

County police were also briefly at the scene.

Degan Bartels, a spokesperson with Montgomery County Police, said the department’s role was limited to ensuring officer safety and providing assistance if a rescue or an emergency response became necessary, and that county police left after determining that they were not needed.

MCPD officers did not participate in “the pursuit, detention, apprehension, or enforcement actions associated with this federal operation,” Bartels said.

We Are CASA, a Hyattsville-based immigrant rights group, said in a statement that the county failed immigrants by responding to the scene of an immigration enforcement operation.

“We call on Montgomery County to release a public statement outlining their role in this operation,” said Alex Vazquez, CASA’s Maryland organizing director. “This is a perfect example where the County is called into a situation for a purpose purportedly other than enforcement and ends up violating local trust protections.”

Park Police said in statements that their officers were conducting routine enforcement on Wednesday to keep prohibited commercial vehicles off the roadway.

Court records show at least 10 instances from September to February in which Park Police worked with ICE to arrest immigrants.

Little is known about those taken into custody that morning. Park Police directed questions to ICE, the arresting agency. ICE has not responded to several requests for comment since Wednesday.

Vazquez said the operation by Park Police and ICE amounted to immigration enforcement driven by “racial harassment,” which is “a disturbing reality that now counts as normal in this country.”

The people who ran away from the vehicle risked their lives rather than encountering ICE, Vazquez said.

Since mid-June, two people have died by drowning in the Potomac River.

County Council President Natali Fani-González said she agrees with Mink’s assertion that county officials need to work harder to ensure the community understands that county personnel are not working with ICE.

She also praised the fire department’s response at the river on Wednesday.

“I appreciate that fire and rescue were there to help people, regardless of where they were born or their immigration status,” Fani-González said. “I’m proud of them.”