A Montgomery County Council member wants to ban former ICE employees from county jobs

Montgomery County Council member Kristin Mink wants to restrict former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees from holding jobs in nearly all county offices and departments.

She has filed a bill that she said would help immigrants who live in the county feel safer seeking government services, given the Trump administration’s aggressive push, through ICE, to detain and deport noncitizens.

“I was hearing from local service providers — both county government folks and some of our county government partners — about the decrease that they were seeing in people who are coming in to receive services,” Mink told The Banner in an interview Tuesday.

“That includes everything from our food hubs to health care programs to even kids coming in to use our county rec facilities.”

The legislation would restrict the county from hiring those employed by ICE after October 2025. That’s about nine months after President Donald Trump took office and enough time for ICE employees to “see that this administration is directing these departments to take actions that are unconstitutional, that are violent,” Mink said.

But some worry that Mink’s measure is itself unconstitutional and will expose the county to a lawsuit.

Mink, who represents District 5 on the council, told The Banner she drafted the bill so that it wouldn’t violate the Constitution or employment discrimination laws. It’s co-sponsored by at-large council member Will Jawando, the Democratic nominee for county executive.

Joyce Smithey, chair of the Maryland State Bar Association’s labor and employment chapter and a managing partner of Smithey Law Group, told The Banner on Tuesday that she believes the county would be taking a chance with the bill as it’s currently written.

“Previous employment” isn’t a protected class under Maryland employment discrimination law, but some critics of the bill could raise constitutional questions, said Smithey, who has analyzed similar bills in the past.

“It’s big headline legislation,” she said. “Someone could file a lawsuit in order to make a statement.”

Gabriela Rivera, who testified for the bill during a public hearing Tuesday on behalf of the Montgomery County Immigrant Rights Collective, said it would make immigrants more likely to get help they need.

“We are seeing firsthand how fear is preventing people from accessing essential county services,” Rivera said. “No one should have to choose between meeting their family’s basic needs and family safety.”

The nonprofit We Are CASA wrote in testimony to the council that the measure should move forward.

“This bill helps protect that trust by ensuring that former ICE agents who participated in the federal government’s inhumane immigration enforcement system are not hired into sensitive, public facing County positions,” the group wrote.

Republican county executive candidate Esther Wells gave the only testimony opposing the bill during the hearing.

“As an immigrant, I understand that true community trust comes from safe neighborhoods and fully staffed public safety departments,” Wells said.

Precedent for hiring bans

Prince George’s County passed similar legislation in April, which Mink said partly inspired her bill. Like hers, the Prince George’s County bill applies only to ICE employees who worked for the agency during or after October 2025.

Similar bills are also under consideration across the country.

Earlier this year, Prince George’s County Del. Adrian Boafo introduced a bill in the General Assembly that would bar any ICE agent sworn in since Trump’s inauguration from working at a state law enforcement agency, such as the Maryland State Police. The bill did not advance past its first committee hearing.

But similar legislation has been more successful in California, where a bill that would disqualify ICE employees “with documented patterns of abuse” from serving in state law enforcement passed the Assembly and is awaiting hearings in the state Senate.

In Washington state, legislators introduced a bill earlier this year that would ban ICE agents from working in law enforcement, but it hasn’t advanced. A New Jersey bill under consideration would ban ICE agents from becoming state government employees, teachers or local officials.

Mink’s bill would apply to employees in almost all county offices and departments, including Health and Human Services, Housing and Community Affairs, Transportation, Corrections and Rehabilitation, fire and rescue services and police.

Smithey said that could present a higher bar for the county to clear compared to a bill that makes previous employment with ICE relevant to the hiring of law enforcement officers.

“This bill is really broad,” Smithey said. “That’s much harder to uphold.”

Mink has also argued that a law that targeted only those directly involved in specific abusive or violent actions at ICE would not be workable.

People can hide troubling work histories, she said, sometimes by wearing masks, “and then there are obviously people who are doing desk jobs that are supporting that work.”