Sen. Hough Expresses Concerns About Two Bills Introduced In The 2019 Md. General Assembly

He says they could limit the Sheriff’s Office’s work with federal immigration officials.

 

Frederick, Md (KM). Two bills sponsored by Prince George’s County State Senator Paul Pinsky (D) could have an impact on the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office’s agreements with federal immigration authorities.

One measure would prohibit a correctional facility from holding individuals beyond a certain date, and police could not ask certain questions  of the people who are taken into custody. A second bill would prohibit local detention centers from being reimbursed by another party for detaining certain persons.

The Sheriff’s Office has similar contacts with the Department of Homeland Security. “Senator Pinsky’s bill would shut down both parts of that, saying that our local jails could not contract with the Department of Homeland Security anymore to hold these illegal immigrants,” says Frederick County State Senator Michael Hough (R).

For the past few years, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office has taken part in the 287g program administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It allows deputies to determine the immigration status of the suspects they arrest. If the individual is in the US illegally, Department of Homeland Security could ask that that individual be detained.

Critics have blasted the  Sheriff’s Office’s work with ICE, claiming that deputies targets individuals for arrest and deportation. But Sheriff Chuck Jenkins says any determination of a person’s immigration status comes at the Detention Center as  that individual is being processed.

Senator Hough defends the Sheriff’s Office’s work with ICE. “So of the thousands of that are arrested that are illegal, and that the thousands that they arrest, it probably only breaks down to a couple of hundred that are actually held and then deported because they are the worst of the worst,” he says.

Hough was guest recently on “Success Happens” on WFMD.

 

By Kevin McManus