ACLU of Maryland Statement on ICE's Lawless Surge in Frederick

The ACLU of Maryland condemns ICE's lawless and terrorizing siege of a Frederick neighborhood for nearly 40 hours beginning last Thursday, September 3. For a day and a half, federal agents patrolled the neighborhood in unmarked vehicles, leaving neighbors afraid to leave their homes to go to work or pick up their kids from school. Agents stopped and searched passing cars to interrogate drivers about their citizenship status, and at least one community member was taken into custody as a result.

We are alarmed by video and eyewitness accounts describing federal agents using excessive force against people engaged in nonviolent protest, and using vehicles as battering rams to disperse community members who had gathered to lawfully observe and document ICE's presence. We stand in solidarity with the Frederick neighbors and community members who showed up to bear witness, accompany families to bus stops, and support one another through this ordeal. The right to observe and document law enforcement in public is fundamental to living in a democracy.

This is not an isolated incident. It is the latest escalation in an ICE surge that has swept across Maryland this summer. In July, ICE began daily roundups of Haitian workers and neighbors on the Lower Eastern Shore after their TPS protections were unjustly stripped. In the first two weeks of August alone, DHS's "Operation Safe Communities" resulted in more than 1,300 arrests across Maryland and the DMV.

ICE brings chaos and cruelty to our neighborhoods, not safety. Maryland took a critical step this year to stop using local resources for mass deportations by ending 287(g) agreements and getting the Community Trust Act signed into law. But with the largest budget of any law enforcement agency in U.S. history, ICE continues to escalate its presence

We are calling on the Maryland Attorney General’s office to conduct an open and transparent investigation into ICE’s actions. Our Maryland communities deserve an independent assessment of whether ICE is acting lawfully.