In Maryland, we’re defending the humanity of immigrants

OpEd originally published in The Washington Post

May 18, 2022

Assistant Warden Major Mike Cronise stands in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the Frederick County Detention Center on June 28 in Frederick. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Nick Taichi Steiner is a Japanese American man with short dark hair and is wearing glasses. He is looking at the camera and smiling. he has a white button-up shirt on and a light brick wall behind him.

Nick Taichi Steiner

Senior Staff Attorney

If President Biden wants to follow through with his campaign promises and be a president who supports the immigrant community, he needs to end the 287(g) program.

Recently, the national ACLU issued a report, “A License to Abuse: How ICE’s 287(g) Program Empowers Racist Sheriffs,” on the draconian immigration enforcement program called 287(g). The program delegates federal immigration enforcement authority to local and state law enforcement agencies. It expanded five fold under the Trump administration. In Maryland, the county sheriffs in Frederick, Harford and Cecil counties have the program.

Make no mistake: The program is a racist, anti-immigrant effort by the sheriffs to remove immigrants, particularly immigrants who are Black and/or originally from Central America, from their communities. We have heard time and again that this federally sanctioned local immigration enforcement scheme creates fear among the immigrant community, encourages racial profiling by local police and creates a xenophobic policing system in which non-U. S. citizens are treated as second class.

Read the full OpEd

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Immigrants' Rights Racial Justice Due Process View All Issues

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