At least seven people were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials Tuesday in the Annapolis area, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said in a statement posted on social media Wednesday.

Pittman, who is also the chair of the state Democratic Party, said it represented “unprecedented levels of ICE activity” in the area.

“Residents watched terrified as armed masked men in unmarked vehicles detained people,” Pittman wrote.

Pittman said ICE enforcement makes “communities less safe” and that agents are detaining “people who make our communities better.”

The county executive thanked grassroots volunteers who monitor ICE activity and alert people when officers are nearby, and who are helping connect families affected by immigration enforcement with resources and support.

“If you are horrified by ICE coming into our communities and breaking up families, I urge you to step up and support your neighbors,” Pittman wrote.

He said people can donate to the Family Protection Fund at the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County to support legal aid, family stability resources and more. And if a county resident sees someone detained by ICE, Pittman said, they should call the Family Protection Hotline at 410-222-0319.

ICE did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

U.S. Rep Sarah Elfreth said on the social media site X that she was aware of “the increased ICE presence in Edgewater and Annapolis.” Later, she joined calls to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“The President and Secretary Noem have put our local police in an impossible situation and have weaponized ICE to instill fear, division, and terrorize immigrant communities,” the Democrat said in a separate statement. “ICE’s activity under this Administration doesn’t make anyone safer and only hurts good-faith, local community policing efforts.”

Anne Arundel County Public School officials first learned of ramped-up ICE activity around Annapolis on Tuesday morning when they were “told families in the Annapolis area were contacting their children’s schools to express concern,” spokesperson Bob Mosier said in an email.

Mosier said there have been no reports of ICE officers at county schools to date.

School officials nonetheless met with all Annapolis-area principals to relay parents’ concerns and had conversations with the County Executive’s Office of Multicultural Affairs.

“They were aware of groups that planned to go to communities and support families,” Mosier said of the multicultural affairs staff. “We asked that they convey to those groups the need to remain off school grounds and they did.”

Anne Arundel County Councilwoman Allison Pickard, a Glen Burnie Democrat, said in a statement she’s “deeply concerned” by the intensified ICE activity.

“Everyone in our county deserves to feel safe going to work, school, and accessing essential services. This heightened level of activity has been my concern since the event in Glen Burnie last month,” she wrote.

ICE officials recently revised their account of a Christmas Eve shooting in Glen Burnie. Initially, federal officials said two men were in a vehicle that rammed an ICE vehicle and tried to run agents over.

ICE agents shot the driver. After local officials disputed the ICE account, federal officials revised their story and said that one of the men was in ICE custody at the time of the shooting.

This article may be updated.