Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office personnel transferred a detainee to ICE custody on June 18, then later said the sheriff’s office handled the case improperly. Sheriff Maxwell Uy said the office has added measures to keep a similar transfer from happening again.
Natali Fani-González on the transfer
Natali Fani-González said she was “extremely frustrated” by reports that Uy failed to ensure the sheriff’s office complied with the law. She also said, “As an immigrant who has faced the threat of deportation, I know firsthand the fear many families live with.”
In the same statement released Saturday, she said, “Before the state act took effect, I spearheaded with my Council colleagues the Montgomery County Trust Act to prohibit the use of County resources in federal civil immigration enforcement.” She added, “We expect our law enforcement officials and County employees to follow the law and protect the civil rights of all our residents.”
Maryland Community Trust Act
The sheriff’s office said it received a federal detainer request indicating the individual posed a risk to national security and public safety. The Maryland Community Trust Act limits transferring people to ICE custody unless specific legal conditions are met, and an internal review later concluded this transfer did not meet those exceptions.
Montgomery County had enacted its own Trust Act earlier this year, before the state law took effect. Uy said the sheriff’s office does not engage in immigration enforcement and does not inquire about immigration status.
Maxwell Uy response
WUSA9 reported that the detainee was transferred before the sheriff’s office completed its review of whether the case met the legal requirements for cooperation with federal immigration authorities. It also reported that a public defender learned the detainee had already been transferred when arriving to meet the individual, and that guidance from the Maryland Attorney General’s Office on implementing the law came later that same day.
Uy said the sheriff’s office has not joined legal challenges to the law filed by sheriffs in other Maryland jurisdictions. The unanswered point now is what specific facts led the internal review to decide the June 18 transfer did not fit the law’s exceptions, since the office had already acted before its review was complete.
