On one anti-ICE bill, several Montgomery County Council members hesitate

The 11-member Montgomery County Council has unanimously passed several bills to counter a surge in deportations. But an additional measure to thwart U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is giving several council members pause.

That subset is hesitant to vote for the Unmask ICE Act, sponsored by at-large council member Will Jawando, which would prohibit federal, state and local law enforcement from wearing masks on the job, with some exceptions, such as medical masks to protect public health.

Jawando has expressed some impatience with his colleagues’ hesitation. But the holdouts worry that the bill may be unconstitutional, and, if passed, leave the council vulnerable to legal challenges and unwanted attention from the Trump administration.

Council President Natali Fani-González, who came to the county as an undocumented teenager, has sponsored her own bills restricting ICE, but fears contradicting federal law, even inadvertently.

Constituents should understand, she said, that the county has limited authority to intervene in the federal government’s aggressive efforts to drive undocumented — and in some cases documented — immigrants out of the country.

The campaign has sent waves of fear through immigrant communities across the nation and in Montgomery County in particular, where about 34% of residents are foreign-born.

“It broke my heart hearing the stories, especially from children experiencing family separation, thinking that our legislation will solve the situation,” Fani-González said. “Yes it will help, but won’t fix everything when our power is so limited over ICE.”

The council has evidence that Jawando’s mask bill may not pass constitutional muster.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office has warned that banning federal immigration officers from wearing masks would be “difficult and likely unconstitutional” in response to a state bill with a similar aim. Despite that, the County Council wrote a letter to the General Assembly unanimously supporting a statewide mask ban earlier in the session.

And a bill similar to Jawando’s faced similar legal criticism in Baltimore County. Based on those concerns, the Baltimore City Council removed a mask provision from a broader immigration bill designed to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Hesitation on the council

District 7 council member Dawn Luedtke said that while she supports the aim of Jawando’s bill, she’s concerned that the county doesn’t have the authority or the resources to enforce it, and that it wouldn’t hold up in court.

“We shouldn’t be dealing with this right now locally, when the only authority we do have that is certain is over our county police department,” she said.

District 3 council member Sidney Katz, chair of the Public Safety Committee assigned to work on the bill, shares Luedtke’s concerns and advised waiting until the state makes a final decision on the General Assembly bill.

Despite his colleague’s doubts, Jawando is pressing on.

“Montgomery County residents have been overwhelmingly clear: pass this bill now,” Jawando said. ”Families are living in fear of the masked, unidentifiable agents who are showing up at their doors.”

In a statement Friday he announced that he and co-sponsor Kristin Mink will move during Tuesday’s council meeting to schedule the bill for a work session. The motion requires six affirmative votes to pass, but it’s not yet clear that Jawando and Mink can get four more votes.

Fani-González has suggested a path forward modeled on the council’s work on another bill sponsored by Mink, the County Values Act. That bill would require a judicial warrant for ICE to access nonpublic areas of county facilities, which are not covered by previous legislation passed by the council. It would also prohibit the use of county-owned parking facilities and vacant lots for immigration enforcement.

“We can’t make ICE agents operate lawfully,” Mink said of her bill. “What we can do is employ the strongest possible protocols.”

Some council members, including Fani-González, worried that the legislation conflicted with local law enforcement practices. But after a series of tweaks, it will come before the full council vote, yet to be scheduled, and is expected to pass.