A Maryland corrections department employee is being investigated by Baltimore authorities after allegedly tipping off ICE agents, who were then escorted to that employee’s location in a courthouse, where they detained a person awaiting pretrial services.
“It appears that a single pretrial employee contacted ICE to cause a federal immigration enforcement action to occur on Monday outside the scope of their standard duties,” Nicholas Blendy, assistant sheriff and spokesperson for the department, said in a statement.
The criminal probe will look into how the unnamed employee allegedly used private information in what is the first instance of Trump’s federal immigration policy being used in the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse.
The incident is alarming both advocates and immigrant communities, many of whom are already going into hiding or self-deporting to avoid the labyrinth of bureaucracy and unknowns that come with an ICE arrest.
For it to happen at a courthouse has been particularly upsetting, community leaders said.
“Courthouses must be treated as sensitive locations where people can go without worrying that ICE will be waiting to target them,” Crisaly de los Santos, CASA Baltimore and Central Maryland director, told the Baltimore Banner. “Baltimore has declared itself a welcoming city, and that commitment must extend to every institution including our courts and police departments.”
