Frederick County, Maryland, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins is the poster boy for the flawed and racist policy that allows local law enforcement officers to cosplay as federal deportation agents. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) previously noted in a report that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intentionally sought out sheriffs with anti-immigrant records—like Jenkins—for participation in its 287(g) program.
Digital magazine Bolts reports that Jenkins is now seeking his fifth term as sheriff. He’s previously coasted to victory with margins as wide as 25 points. But in 2018, Democratic challenger Karl Bickel trimmed that down to just 4 points. Bolts reports that Bickel, a former sheriff’s deputy and a retired policing analyst at the Department of Justice, is campaigning on terminating the department’s 287(g) agreement. This has been a position of a number of winning Democratic candidates for sheriff in recent years.
“It’s just not the place of local law enforcement to get involved in immigration enforcement,” Bickel told Bolts. “It’s time to start the hard work of rebuilding trust with the immigrant community.”
RELATED STORY: 'Get me some of those taco eaters': This ICE program empowers terrible sheriffs to be even worse
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Local organizations and advocates who have for years advocated for the sheriff’s department to terminate its 287(g) agreement with ICE feel encouraged by the signs and trends in the region since Bickel challenged Jenkins in 2018. ”The county has shifted bluer since,” Bolts reports. “Biden’s 10-point win over Trump marked the first time a Democratic presidential candidate carried Frederick County since 1964. In 2021, Democrats used their new majority on the county council to create the first Immigrant Affairs Commission, a body meant to facilitate communication between immigrants and elected officials.”
Statewide that same year, lawmakers overrode a veto from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and passed into law policy severely limiting ICE’s detention power in the state. The Dignity Not Detention Act blocks private detention and phases out existing agreements between local jails and ICE. Lawmakers also overrode a veto to pass into law the Maryland Driver Privacy Act, which shields the privacy of immigrant drivers.
Of course, it’s the county voters who will be the ones deciding who heads the sheriff’s department there—and they feel hopeful. “Jenkins’s critics believe that conditions are in place for the sheriff to lose in a still-diversifying Frederick County, from the local backlash to Trump to this statewide move to be more welcoming to immigrants,” Bolts continued. “And they intend to keep reminding people of his policies.”
Jenkins has the distinction of being one of the sheriffs singled out by name in the ACLU’s April report. ICE went into agreement with Frederick County “after he ran on an anti-immigrant platform that included a warning that ‘aliens’ were moving to Frederick County from Northern Virginia—and a pledge that he would ‘shoot them right back,’” the report said. Jenkins also claimed that “the single biggest threat to our country is the immigration problem.” Just last year, he was forced to apologize to a Latina racially profiled by his department. Under a settlement, the county agreed to pay Sara Haidee Aleman Medrano $125,000. Jenkins also has a history of associating with anti-immigrant hate groups.
While acting ICE Director Tae Johnson (a holdover from the previous insurrectionist administration) has repeatedly pledged a review of the 287(g) program, “to date the agency has not announced a process for this review,” lawmakers said this month. President Joe Biden as a candidate also pledged to end 287(g) agreements entered into by the insurrectionist president, but that promise has gone unfulfilled. County voters hold the power to end their own agreement in their hands.
Santiago, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient in the county, told Bolts that he worries constantly “because my dad drives everyday and he’s undocumented. There are times when he and my mom leave the house and I won’t hear from them for a few hours. I get worried. Did something bad happen? Did they get stopped?” As previously noted here at Daily Kos, immigrant communities in Gwinnett County, Georgia, described “relief” after Sheriff Keybo Taylor kept his promise and terminated the department’s 287(g) after winning his election in 2020.
Donald Trump and his MAGA allies came close to overthrowing our democracy on January 6, and they will try again if they win in 2022. The best thing you can do is to help get out the Democratic vote for the midterms, and we need everyone to do what they can. Click here to find all the volunteer opportunities available.
RELATED STORIES:
Immigrant communities describe 'relief' after Georgia sheriffs terminate ICE agreements
Georgia county's new Democratic sheriff ends flawed and racist ICE agreement on first day in office
ICE pledged review of flawed 287(g) agreements more than a year ago, but still no decision
Digital magazine Bolts reports that Jenkins is now seeking his fifth term as sheriff. He’s previously coasted to victory with margins as wide as 25 points. But in 2018, Democratic challenger Karl Bickel trimmed that down to just 4 points. Bolts reports that Bickel, a former sheriff’s deputy and a retired policing analyst at the Department of Justice, is campaigning on terminating the department’s 287(g) agreement. This has been a position of a number of winning Democratic candidates for sheriff in recent years.
“It’s just not the place of local law enforcement to get involved in immigration enforcement,” Bickel told Bolts. “It’s time to start the hard work of rebuilding trust with the immigrant community.”
RELATED STORY: 'Get me some of those taco eaters': This ICE program empowers terrible sheriffs to be even worse
Campaign Action
Local organizations and advocates who have for years advocated for the sheriff’s department to terminate its 287(g) agreement with ICE feel encouraged by the signs and trends in the region since Bickel challenged Jenkins in 2018. ”The county has shifted bluer since,” Bolts reports. “Biden’s 10-point win over Trump marked the first time a Democratic presidential candidate carried Frederick County since 1964. In 2021, Democrats used their new majority on the county council to create the first Immigrant Affairs Commission, a body meant to facilitate communication between immigrants and elected officials.”
Statewide that same year, lawmakers overrode a veto from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and passed into law policy severely limiting ICE’s detention power in the state. The Dignity Not Detention Act blocks private detention and phases out existing agreements between local jails and ICE. Lawmakers also overrode a veto to pass into law the Maryland Driver Privacy Act, which shields the privacy of immigrant drivers.
Of course, it’s the county voters who will be the ones deciding who heads the sheriff’s department there—and they feel hopeful. “Jenkins’s critics believe that conditions are in place for the sheriff to lose in a still-diversifying Frederick County, from the local backlash to Trump to this statewide move to be more welcoming to immigrants,” Bolts continued. “And they intend to keep reminding people of his policies.”
Jenkins has the distinction of being one of the sheriffs singled out by name in the ACLU’s April report. ICE went into agreement with Frederick County “after he ran on an anti-immigrant platform that included a warning that ‘aliens’ were moving to Frederick County from Northern Virginia—and a pledge that he would ‘shoot them right back,’” the report said. Jenkins also claimed that “the single biggest threat to our country is the immigration problem.” Just last year, he was forced to apologize to a Latina racially profiled by his department. Under a settlement, the county agreed to pay Sara Haidee Aleman Medrano $125,000. Jenkins also has a history of associating with anti-immigrant hate groups.
While acting ICE Director Tae Johnson (a holdover from the previous insurrectionist administration) has repeatedly pledged a review of the 287(g) program, “to date the agency has not announced a process for this review,” lawmakers said this month. President Joe Biden as a candidate also pledged to end 287(g) agreements entered into by the insurrectionist president, but that promise has gone unfulfilled. County voters hold the power to end their own agreement in their hands.
Santiago, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient in the county, told Bolts that he worries constantly “because my dad drives everyday and he’s undocumented. There are times when he and my mom leave the house and I won’t hear from them for a few hours. I get worried. Did something bad happen? Did they get stopped?” As previously noted here at Daily Kos, immigrant communities in Gwinnett County, Georgia, described “relief” after Sheriff Keybo Taylor kept his promise and terminated the department’s 287(g) after winning his election in 2020.
Donald Trump and his MAGA allies came close to overthrowing our democracy on January 6, and they will try again if they win in 2022. The best thing you can do is to help get out the Democratic vote for the midterms, and we need everyone to do what they can. Click here to find all the volunteer opportunities available.
RELATED STORIES:
Immigrant communities describe 'relief' after Georgia sheriffs terminate ICE agreements
Georgia county's new Democratic sheriff ends flawed and racist ICE agreement on first day in office
ICE pledged review of flawed 287(g) agreements more than a year ago, but still no decision