ICE has been staking out a Frederick neighborhood for 36 hours. No one knows why.

Residents of a quiet Frederick neighborhood are watching as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles have sat outside their homes for more than 36 hours — without knowing why.

The vehicles arrived around 6 a.m. Thursday near the Taskers Chance area, according to City Council Member Katie Nash. It is unclear whether ICE is looking for a specific person, conducting an operation or why agents have remained in the neighborhood for so long.

“It’s nuts,” Nash told The Banner on Friday night. “Now people are just not leaving their houses.”

The stakeout comes amid a recent surge in immigration enforcement that has left communities on edge. In Maryland and Virginia, ICE reported arresting 1,328 people from Aug. 1-14. It’s not clear how many of those were in Maryland alone, but Nash said she has noticed an uptick of ICE presence in Frederick.

Frederick Police Department were called to the neighborhood at one point on Thursday to help de-escalate an incident between the agents and civilians, Nash said, but the details of what happened are unclear.

The police department did not immediately respond to request for comment. Neither has the Department of Homeland Security or ICE.

Reverend Angela Wells, a member of the Western Maryland Immigrant Rights Collective, a group that has been in the area to observe the ICE vehicles, said the agents have been present near Stoneybrook Court and Schaffer Drive for over 40 hours.

“We are determined to stand up for our neighbors,” she said. “These are just our neighbors... they are just trying to live their lives.”

Mayor Michael O’Connor and City Council President César Díaz said in a joint statement that the city “strongly objects to federal enforcement that unnecessarily intimidate residents or disrupt an entire neighborhood.”

“No federal operation should leave families confined in their homes or unsafe in their own community,” the statement said. “Such tactics damage public trust and undermine the sense of safety that law enforcement should protect.”

O’Connor and Díaz added that city officials and Frederick Police Department are monitoring the conditions in the area.

Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater also released a statement saying that she was also watching the “ongoing federal ICE activity” in the city.

“Frederick County Government will continue to serve all members of our community fairly, lawfully, and respectfully,” she said in the statement. “We cannot allow our public resources to be used to intimidate and harass communities under the pretense of public safety.”

The recent surge in ICE arrests in Maryland and Virginia have largely targeted the Washington suburbs. It’s part of a national uptick in immigration enforcement as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to prioritize his deportation agenda.

Gov. Wes Moore criticized the most recent surge, saying “it undermines trust between law enforcement and the people they serve, and it does not make us safer.”