The following article was submitted by Sixth District Delegate Robin Grammer about Maryland’s “immigration deception”
Whether it be blaming Washington for our economic woes or playing off their corrupt redistricting plan as a way to protect the voters, Wes Moore and the Maryland Democrat Party here in Annapolis are masters of falsehoods and deception.
No lie of theirs has been greater, however, than the dangerous and utterly false narrative they have spun about the 287(g) program.
With a nondescript name and little presence in the public conscience before this year, it has been tragically easy for the Democrats to seize the narrative and define the 287(g) program as something unimaginably sinister.
On online podcasts, social media, network television, and in the halls of our capital, they claim that the program invites law enforcement officers to terrorize communities, snatch kids, bust down doors, and arrest innocent undocumented persons simply because they are undocumented.
The simple fact is that none of that is true. It is a great political lie.
The 287(g) program was created by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which passed both houses of Congress by overwhelming margins and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Today, the program allows the Department of Homeland Security to form agreements with state and local law enforcement, deputizing them to enforce federal immigration law.
The officers placed in these roles receive specialized training to carry out their duties, which they have been doing without controversy for decades.
In working with the federal government, Maryland needs due process. The 287g program is due process.
Here in Maryland, nine counties have formed such agreements with DHS. Contrary to what the Democrats would have you believe, this does not mean that local law enforcement is roaming the streets in search of illegal aliens.
Far from it. Instead, these agreements are used for detainers, meaning that if law enforcement arrests a suspect for a separate crime and then learns that the suspect is undocumented, 287g allows local law enforcement to be deputized with the purpose of serving a federal warrant, making the transfer of locally detained criminals to the federal government legal and peaceful.
The crux of the Democrats’ deception is that repealing 287(g) will make our communities safer. In fact, it will do the opposite.
Banning cooperation agreements between local law enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security will inevitably result in the illegal aliens that were once being held in custody awaiting transfer now being let back onto the streets.
Even if these aliens did not commit further crimes, which is a concern that absolutely cannot be discounted, their presence in our communities alone would invite the kinds of public raids and aggressive tactics we have seen in Minneapolis and in other places around the country.
Enforcing federal law is a job that must be done, and I would much rather it be done calmly and safely in our jails rather than in our streets.
Opposition to ICE and immigration enforcement may be a political winner in the Democratic Party, but it’s a practical loser for Marylanders.
Banning law enforcement coordination makes the intentions of the Democrats clear – they want to reinstitute the open borders immigration policies of President Biden.
Marylanders must contact Governor Wes Moore and demand he veto this misguided legislation.
