Maryland lawmakers heavily debated a bill concerning ICE detention centers on Wednesday, including testimony from a previous detainee who spoke about her experience in a Maryland center.
The Dignity Not Detention Act would prevent the state’s detention centers from renewing existing contracts with ICE or private prison companies and prevent the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency from coming into Maryland in the future to build new detention centers.
Additionally, under this bill, SB0478 and HB0016, if ICE is planning to build any new detention centers in Maryland, the public would be informed.
“ICE detention is horrible, but it is a million times more horrible and devastating during the pandemic,” said Cathryn Paul, research and policy analyst at CASA, the largest immigrant services and advocacy organization in Maryland.
There have been multiple accounts of immigrants in Maryland facilities who were detained and not given masks until late into the pandemic and people who weren’t given basic necessities when they got sick, Paul said.
A vast majority of detainees have no criminal record – other than the possible immigration violations for which they are being detained – but even if they did, no one should be subject to unsafe treatment in the United States, said Del. Vaughn Stewart, D-Montgomery, a sponsor of the bill.
If the illegals do not want to be detained, they need to stay the hell home, and quit coming across our borders illegally. I like walls, real high electrified walls with barb wire on them too.