College Park and Hyattsville are among 10 Maryland cities the federal government says are “obstructing the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has removed a list from its website that included 500 jurisdictions nationwide. Adobe Stock photo

By SHARON O’MALLEY

This story was updated from its original version on June 2 as events unfolded.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on June 1 removed from its website a list of states, counties and cities—including College Park and Hyattsville—that it had identified as “sanctuary jurisdictions.” 

The list, published on May 29, included 500 jurisdictions nationwide, including eight counties and 10 cities in Maryland, as well as the state. In a press release from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the agency threatened to deny federal funds to those on the list.

During a June 1 appearance on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures, Noem said removing the list was a response to blowback from “some of the cities. They think that because they don’t have one law or another on the books that they don’t qualify but they do qualify.”

The National Sheriffs’ Association over the weekend accused DHS of creating the list without input from law enforcement and called on the agency to “publicly denounce” the report.

No universally accepted definition for “sanctuary jurisdiction” exists, but the term generally refers to a city, county or state that refuses to cooperate with federal efforts to deport residents who are immigrants.

College Park officials have not declared the city as a sanctuary jurisdiction. A May 30 statement from the city called “the news of this designation … surprising.”

The statement noted that College Park does not have its own police department, jail or court system and has never received a request from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain immigrants suspected of living in the U.S. illegally.

“College Park has and will continue to be a welcoming and inclusive community,” according to the statement, which was released after Mayor Fazlul Kabir and mayors from other local cities named on the DHS list met with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on the morning of May 30. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to the safety and well-being of all our residents.”

The statement said the city has not received any formal notification from DHS about its inclusion on the list.

“The City of College Park complies with all laws and treats all residents justly and equally,” the statement said.

Takoma Park voluntarily became the state’s first sanctuary city more than 30 years ago. Hyattsville became the second in 2017, when it adopted a law prohibiting city officials from using government resources “to support federal civil immigration enforcement operations or activities” and police from arresting or detaining anyone solely because of suspected violations of federal immigration laws.

At that time, President Donald Trump, in his first term, had already threatened to deny federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions. 

Then-City Councilmember Patrick Paschall, the Hyattsville bill’s primary sponsor, said officials there wanted immigrant residents to know they did not have to fear local police, according to The Washington Post. 

At the April 21 Hyattsville City Council meeting, Mayor Robert Croslin reaffirmed the city’s commitment to its sanctuary city policy.

“We don’t ask about immigration status,” City Administrator Tracey Douglass said at the meeting, which included a lengthy discussion of the March 12 arrest of Beltsville resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the parking lot of the College Park IKEA. Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador, had previously been arrested in 2019 outside of the Hyattsville Home Depot on East-West Highway.

In the May 29 press release, DHS characterized the jurisdictions it named as “deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws, endangering American communities.”

Aside from College Park and Hyattsville, the list included the cities of Annapolis, Baltimore, Cheverly, Edmonston, Greenbelt, Mount Rainier, Rockville and Takoma Park. Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Charles, Howard, Montgomery, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties joined Prince George’s County on the list.

“These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens,” Noem said in the press release.

College Park and others have released statements saying they “will continue to work with our partners at the county, state and federal levels.”

Kit Slack, executive director of Streetcar Suburbs Publishing, contributed to this article.