Three months ago, Executive Marc Elrich banned ICE officials from entering secure parts of the Montgomery County, Maryland jail.
However, Elrich has just repealed the decision, following a string of rapes of citizens suspected to have been committed by illegal aliens.
Effective immegiately, ICE agents have regained the ability to access areas of the county jail to apprehend illegal immigrants.
The reversal of the sanctuary policy comes after numerous illegal aliens were detained on accusations of rape. All of the arrests occured within weeks after Elrich’s anti-ICE policy was put into place.
Take a look at the breaking news that hit Twitter:
The Daily Caller has more to say about the policy reversal:
Following months of national media coverage over the handling of illegal aliens in his custody, Montgomery County, Maryland, Executive Marc Elrich has somewhat reversed a sanctuary policy he signed into law.
Elrich will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents the ability to access certain areas of the Montgomery County jail in order to apprehend illegal aliens, according to ABC7 News. A county spokesman confirmed to the local news outlet on Nov. 1 that correctional officers have been ordered to give ICE agents clearance to “identified areas” of the jail to “ensure that transfers are conducted in a safe environment.”
News of the cooperation between Montgomery County and federal immigration authorities comes three months after Elrich signed an executive order that prohibited county officials from working with ICE.
Elrich signed the “The Promoting Community Trust Executive Order” in July, which barred county police from asking an individual about their immigration status and largely prohibited them from cooperating with ICE agents. Montgomery County had already refused to honor ICE detainer requests, and the new order was the latest sanctuary measure enacted by a deep-blue locality revolting against the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
However, Elrich’s order soon proved controversial. Authorities arrested numerous illegal aliens in Montgomery County — all of the arrests taking place just weeks after the order was signed — and charged them with rape or other sexual abuse crimes. The string of rape charges shined a national spotlight on the county’s policy toward criminal illegal aliens and its fraught relationship with the agency tasked with removing them.
Local news source WJLA also said the following:
Three months after Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) banned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from accessing secure portions of the county jail, the Elrich administration has quietly reversed the policy, in part.
Effective immediately, Montgomery County correctional officers have been instructed to grant ICE clearance to "identified areas" of the jail to "ensure that transfers are conducted in a safe environment," a Montgomery County spokesman confirmed to ABC7 Friday evening.
That level of cooperation, however, mandates that ICE submit an immigration detainer and arrive at the jail along Seven Locks Road in Rockville prior to the defendant's scheduled release time.
The inmate discharge process can take less than an hour. In other instances, it can take nearly half a day. That wide range in time is based on numerous factors including jail staffing, inmate population, and home address verification checks.
Should ICE fail to submit the proper detainer paperwork — or simply get caught in traffic on Interstate 95 — Montgomery County will continue to free undocumented immigrants via the jail lobby, regardless of the charge/s they stand accused of.
“We’re an hour’s drive from Baltimore, assuming everybody [at ICE is] just sitting around in an office in Baltimore,” Elrich told reporters during a late August press conference. “The idea that they can’t get here is ludicrous.”
Despite issuing a handful of verbal jabs at that summer press conference, Elrich confessed he was considering rolling back his ICE jail ban. Although it remains unclear when the controversial policy formally reverted, law enforcement sources tell ABC7 that local-federal collaboration occurred on October 21.
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