Ball to veto Howard bill to end ICE contract

Council votes 3-2 to eliminate controversial deal

The Howard County Council narrowly passed legislation Monday night to eliminate its controversial contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

However, minutes after the bill passed, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said in a statement that he will veto it.

The bill, which County Council Vice Chairperson Liz Walsh proposed last month, would stop the Howard County Department of Corrections from accepting individuals detained by federal immigration law enforcement agencies. Howard County’s contract with ICE, which has existed since 1995, allows immigration detainees, excluding women and children, to be held in the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup.

The bill passed, 3-2, with council Chairperson Deb Jung, Christiana Mercer Rigby and Walsh voting in favor; Opel Jones and David Yungmann voted against.

“I am happy to be the third vote in favor of this bill to end the contract with ICE,” Walsh said during the meeting. “It is not my work, though, that led this bill before us. It is the steadfastness, the relentlessness and the compassion of the advocates and the people who live this life, are discriminated against and fear ICE in every daily aspect of their lives.”

Ball said he believes the updated policy he announced in mid-September is a “practical long-term solution” that is better than ending the contract.

The update, announced two weeks after Walsh introduced her bill, was a clarification to the county’s contract with ICE. The change, which went into effect Sept. 24, stated the Howard County Detention Center would only accept immigration detainees from ICE who were convicted of a “crime of violence,” such as murder, rape, manslaughter, robbery, and serious assaults and sexual offenses.

“I remain confident that our updated detention center policy strikes the right balance of ensuring safety for county residents and businesses while allowing for fair treatment for those who have been convicted by the criminal justice system and therefore will be vetoing CB-51,” Ball said Monday evening in his statement.

During a Howard County Coalition for Immigrant Justice press conference Friday, Walsh said Ball’s policy change last month wasn’t good enough.

“Although the announced policy says the county will only accept for detention those people who have been convicted of violent crime, it won’t stop who ICE is targeting or ICE’s aims in terms of the harm it will cause to the person it’s detaining and their family,” Walsh said Friday.

Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA, an advocacy group for Latino and immigrant people in Maryland, called Ball’s policy change “a step in the right direction.” He said Friday that CASA’s support of the council’s bill does not mean the organization was unhappy with Ball’s decision to clarify the county’s contract with ICE last month.

“We absolutely support [the council’s bill] ... but we are also very proud of the county executive’s policy [change],” Torres said Friday.

When he vetoes the bill, it will be the second of Ball’s tenure. His first veto was in April 2019 when he halted a bill that would have expanded the buffer zone for new developments built along scenic roads.

After Ball vetoes the bill, it will go back to the County Council for a possible override. Four votes are needed to override Ball’s veto. Walsh, Jung and Rigby could not be reached for comment Monday night after Ball announced he would veto the bill.

Yungmann, the council’s lone Republican, said prior to voting against the bill that the body would regret the loss of revenue the ICE contract brings the county.

As of July 2019, Howard County charges ICE $110 per day to hold each detainee. Between mid-2013 and mid-2019, the contract generated more than $14 million in revenue — an average of $2 million per year, according to figures provided by Howard County Department of Corrections Director Jack Kavanagh.

“The misinformation being fed to people and their willingness to believe it on this issue has been sad and frustrating. Any moderate thinker who reads the recitals in this bill or tuned into our work session recognized that this is nothing more than a knee-jerk response to national politics [and] national immigration policies at a tremendous cost to Howard County taxpayers,” Yungmann said.

“Come budget season in the spring when the five of us are wrangling over that last $2 million over whatever need we have in the county ... [we] need not look much further than the $2 million we just voted to give up.”

Jones spoke for seven minutes in dissent during the meeting.

He said passing the bill “raised more questions and does not solve the issue at hand.” He also referenced a quote from the Foreign-Born Information and Referral Network, which opposed the bill for not having a plan for detainees who would be transferred if the contract was canceled. The same quote from FIRN was also referenced by Ball in his statement to veto the bill.

“I understand the frustration and concern surrounding the topic of immigration, especially as it has been heightened here in America in the recent years,” Jones said. “... At this time, [the bill] will not solve the bigger concern of keeping families together.”

Besides Howard, Frederick and Worcester are the other two counties in Maryland that receive money from ICE to house immigration detainees at their jails. Anne Arundel County ended its ICE contract in January 2019.

Howard County does not participate in the 287(g) program — training ICE gives local police in federal immigration law so county jails can screen inmates for immigration violations. Cecil, Frederick and Harford counties participate in the program.

According to Kavanagh, 10% of the detention center’s ICE detainees are from Howard County. The majority are from Prince George’s, Baltimore and Montgomery counties, with another 10% coming from out of state, he said.

Prior to the County Council’s legislative session Monday night, CASA held a protest against the county’s contract with ICE. About 50 people gathered for the candlelight vigil outside the George Howard Building — where Ball and the County Council work — in support of the bill.

Dan Rodricks is off this week.