LISTEN: Leggett Bucks Fellow Democrats in Opposition to Trust Act

Steve Burns
WMAL.com

ROCKVILLE — (WMAL) In a rebuke to fellow Democrats in deep-blue Montgomery County, County Executive Ike Leggett is coming out against a bill that attempts to limit local and state law enforcement’s involvement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

The bill, Leggett said, would be largely symbolic in Montgomery County where most of the provisions are already in effect and it could, in an extreme circumstance, invite more scrutiny.

“We have a limited level of interaction with the federal government and immigration,” Leggett told WMAL. “We don’t ask for status. We don’t hold people beyond their release date. And that has worked very well for us.”

Codifying those policies into law, Leggett said, could wake up the sleeping giant of immigration enforcement and have it descend on the county.

“The federal government has ratcheted this up to some degree. If you had to make an example of someone, then Montgomery County could be that target.”

Another possible consequence, Leggett said, would be retaliation in the form of the government taking its business elsewhere.

“We have to have ongoing relationships with the federal government. 47,000 people in Montgomery County work for the federal government, and we have a large number of institutions,” Leggett said. “We will be jeopardizing all of that to some degree, with nothing in return other than a symbol.”

While Leggett made clear he agrees with the intent of the bill and strongly disagrees with President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration, he also said the text of the bill could end up misleading people into expecting more than the state and counties are capable of doing.

“We cannot stop ICE, for example, from coming in to the county, utilizing its own resources, in order to arrest and deport people.”