Howard County has rolled out an online form that lets residents report sightings of federal immigration enforcement officers, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with the option to submit tips anonymously. The form asks for the date, approximate time and location of an observed incident, and officials say it is meant to document activity rather than serve as an emergency reporting tool.
What the Form Asks and Why It Exists
According to WMAR-2 News, submitters will be asked to provide the date, approximate time and location of the observed incident, along with other details. Reports may be submitted anonymously, and the station notes that information shared on the form may be disclosable under the Maryland Public Information Act. County Executive Calvin Ball said in a news release that the goal is to promote accountability for federal immigration enforcement officers operating in the county.
“We want to make sure any actions are lawful,” Ball said, per the same account. The form is intended for collecting information about reported sightings and enforcement activity — not for emergency reporting, the station reports.
Columbia Detention Was First Confirmed Local Case
The push for a reporting tool follows what Patch reported was the first confirmed ICE activity known to Howard County Police: a detention near Route 175 and Tamar Drive in Columbia. That confirmation came as advocacy groups and reporters documented a broader pattern of enforcement activity across the county in recent months.
A WMAR-2 News crew separately observed ICE officers alongside Howard County officers in the Eataliano parking lot on Phelps Luck Drive, the station's reporting shows. Howard County law bars police from coordinating with ICE, according to CBS News, and under the county's Liberty Act, county employees are prohibited from assisting with immigration enforcement or sharing anyone's immigration status, The Baltimore Banner reports. The Howard County Office of Human Rights and Equity states that the county government, including its police department and sheriff's office, is not responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws and will not assist with immigration-enforcement actions.
Advocacy Group Tracks Detentions Across the Region
The rollout comes amid a documented increase in enforcement activity across Maryland. We Are CASA's rapid-response hotline has received 215 calls and confirmed that 226 people have been detained statewide since July 1, WMAR-2 News reported. In Howard County alone, the organization confirmed 10 detentions and said more than 20 ICE-related reports came through the hotline over a two-week span.
Federal officials have pointed to a separate enforcement push in the region. An enhanced operation described by the Department of Homeland Security as Operation Safe Community resulted in more than 1,300 arrests of people suspected of being in the country illegally across Maryland and Virginia in August, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
A Fatal Shooting in New York Raises the Stakes
The debate over ICE accountability has intensified nationally following the October 8 shooting of 28-year-old Oscar Bergal, who was shot in the neck by a federal immigration enforcement officer while inside a car in New York City, with a 5-year-old boy in the back seat, according to CBS News. A judge has temporarily blocked Bergal's deportation. The Department of Homeland Security said Bergal refused orders to get out of the car and described him as an undocumented immigrant with alleged gang ties.
The agency has also pushed back on reporting tools like Howard County's, criticizing the initiative. A DHS spokesperson said ICE tracking portals endanger law enforcement officers, reporting what the agency described as an 1,600% increase in assaults, a 3,300% increase in vehicle attacks, and an 8,000% increase in death threats against officers, per CBS News.
Tensions Have Flared Elsewhere in Maryland
Maryland has seen friction between ICE and local communities beyond Howard County. In September, protesters and ICE officers had a confrontation in a Frederick neighborhood, and authorities have not arrested anyone in connection with that incident, according to the same CBS News report. Members of the Maryland congressional delegation called for an investigation into the Frederick confrontation, and a woman whose family appeared to be the focus of the ICE activity there said the experience shocked her because her family members were citizens.
Frederick's City Council has since passed a bill limiting how city employees and property can be involved in enforcing federal immigration policies, The Baltimore Banner reports.
Howard County Joins a Growing List of Local Efforts
Howard County is not the first Maryland jurisdiction to set up this kind of system. Montgomery County launched a similar ICE activity reporting form earlier this year, WMAR-2 News reported, with a related data-collection effort tied to recent local legislation launching the previous month. Howard County officials have framed their own form as part of that same regional push for transparency around federal enforcement actions.
