Two people in the country illegally are in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and face deportation after they ran from a commercial vehicle stop Wednesday on Clara Barton Parkway in Montgomery County, Maryland, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Park Police said officers were conducting commercial vehicle enforcement when three people got out of a vehicle and ran away.
ICE arrested two of them, who are from Mexico and lack permanent legal status, DHS said, and the third individual swam across the Potomac River and got away. DHS told WTOP in a statement the two individuals will remain in ICE custody “pending their removal from the United States.” It’s not clear why the individuals were initially stopped. While the search was underway, people could be seen on a Beltway overpass holding signs warning drivers about ICE activity on Clara Barton Parkway.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich criticized the operation and said the county has limited ability to intervene in ICE enforcement actions. Elrich said the county can observe ICE operations and support families affected by them, but local police would not step in to stop an ICE operation. “We’ve tried to be careful to not mislead people into thinking that we’ve got the ability to protect them from ICE, because we don’t,” Elrich said.
“I don’t want people thinking that, you know, the police are going to run in and break up an ICE operation, because they’re not.” WTOP’s Thomas Robertson contributed to this report.
Summary from source