Dozens of demonstrators marched down the streets of Hyattsville, Maryland, protesting a proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey and other Maryland elected officials sent a letter this week to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Director Todd Lyons for more information about the project.
“When ICE agents kill people, when ICE agents terrorize people, when ICE agents separate children from parents, and they do not even identify themselves — they hide, they hide their faces — they are given the right to do anything with absolute immunity,” Charles Askins, a Hyattsville resident told WTOP. “That is the worst of the worst, not immigrants.”
Askins was one of the many protesters who marched through Hyattsville, ending in front of the building of the proposed new office on Belcrest Road.
In the letter to DHS officials, Ivey wrote, “Given the significant community concern surrounding ICE operations and the potential local impact of this expansion mere blocks from a church, a sensitive location and in the same building as a local Social Services Office of Family Investment, serving young children and families — we are requesting detailed information regarding this proposed facility.”
The letter was also signed by Maryland senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks. It requests more information about the operations and size and scope of the office, and whether it will be an enforcement arm with holding cells or just an administrative office.
“I’ve seen what those detention centers look like,” Ivey said. “They treat people terribly. They’re horrible conditions. I’ve seen animal shelters that are better than some of the detention centers they’re running. And we don’t want the roving patrols. We don’t want this to turn into Minneapolis.”
When asked about the recent ban of 287(g) agreements signed by Gov. Wes Moore and whether President Donald Trump’s administration will continue immigration enforcement in the state, Ivey said, “Trump’s mode of operation has just been to go do what he wants to do, and he keeps doing it until people push back.”
“That’s what we saw in Minnesota,” he continued. “They rolled in, they sent in 3,000 ICE officers. That’s five times more ICE agents than they had than police officers in the Minneapolis Police Department. The community stood up and pushed back, and they ran them out of town.”
The congressman walked with other local leaders during their short march, including Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy and Hyattsville Mayor Robert Croslin.
“The only thing that I can do right now is to thank you all,” Croslin said to the many marchers waving signs reading “No ICE.” “And to let you know that Hyattsville is a sanctuary city.”
Braveboy announced that she would be signing an executive order Thursday that would further limit local law enforcement from working with ICE officers.
Hyattsville resident Kathy Hogle said many of her neighbors are immigrants and fear immigration enforcement.
“Probably the most important thing at this moment is that we have now hundreds of thousands of families who don’t have their breadwinners, hundreds of thousands of families that have been traumatized and that will have to live with this trauma for generations,” Hogle said.
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