Dozens of local lawmakers, attorneys, immigrants and other advocates packed into CASA’s Welcome Center in Baltimore Tuesday afternoon to protest conditions detained immigrants face at the George Fallon building in downtown Baltimore.
The building is home to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office in Baltimore, as well as federal immigration court.
The protesters gathered in the advocacy group’s Highlandtown organizing hub chanted and bore signs that read, “No ICE in Maryland,” and, “Maryland loves immigrants.”
They condemned reports that immigrants are being held in overcrowded, windowless holding cells without beds or food.
It's a human problem, not a political issue, said Baltimore City District 11 Councilman Zac Blanchard.
“If you ask Americans a question like, ‘Should we have tighter borders?’ You will get a political answer,” said Blanchard. “If you ask Americans a question like, ‘Should parents be torn from their children? Should people who are being detained get food or medicine?’ You will get very human answers.”
Rachel Girod, an attorney at the law firm Eldridge/Crandell, represents multiple clients who have been detained at the Baltimore holding cells. She said she has not heard from ICE that conditions have improved since the issue began receiving media coverage last week.
Advocates are calling for ICE to enforce its current policy that says people should not be detained in a holding room like the ones in Baltimore for more than 12 hours.
ICE officers should do what they can, “which is exercise their discretion to either stop the pace of enforcement in Maryland or release people if they detain them and realize they can't transfer them somewhere else within 12 hours,” said Kelly Rojas, an attorney with the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights.
Multiple speakers at Tuesday’s demonstration blamed the overcrowded holding rooms on the accelerated pace of ICE enforcements that have ramped up since President Donald Trump took office in January. They cited news reports that ICE officials are required to detain 75 people per field office per day.
A spokesperson from ICE’s Baltimore field office did not immediately respond to WYPR’s request for comment on the protest.
