Howard County Police said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a man in Columbia on Saturday morning after removing him from the vehicle he was driving.
Officers responded to a report that a man had been removed from a vehicle and detained on Route 175 near Tamar Drive, police said in a statement. After speaking with witnesses, Howard County officers confirmed the incident involved ICE agents.
Police did not have details to share about the driver or why he was taken into custody. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The incident follows days of online reports about federal agents in Columbia. Howard County Police said Thursday that a local covert investigation had been misidentified as ICE activity.
Liz Walsh, a Howard County councilwoman and one of the many who raised alarm over ICE activity this week, said it was “undeniable” that people were being detained by ICE in the county.
“I think in Howard County we have to be prepared and we have to look out for one another,” she said.
After speaking with Police Chief Gregory Der and Administrative Officer Brandee Ganz, Walsh said she was told there was a passenger in the vehicle who spoke with officers. Walsh said ICE officers broke the windows of the vehicle before taking the driver.
Tina Horn, with the immigrant advocacy group Luminus, said the organization knows of others in Howard County who have been taken into ICE custody recently.
“It’s terrifying for folks,” Horn said. “Our neighbors are being terrorized, and there’s no good reason for it.”
Howard County has one of the strictest sanctuary laws in the state, sometimes putting local officials at odds with ICE. Under the Liberty Act, passed in 2020, county employees are prohibited from assisting with immigration enforcement or sharing anyone’s immigration status.
ICE arrests in Maryland have skyrocketed recently. From Sept. 1 to Oct. 15, ICE arrested about 700 people in Maryland. In the months following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, immigration-related arrests more than doubled.
Anne Arundel County has also seen increased reports of ICE activity. At least seven people were taken into ICE custody on Jan. 13, which Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman called “unprecedented levels of ICE activity” in the Annapolis area.
One month ago, ICE agents opened fire on a driver who they said attempted to weaponize his vehicle against the agents. The driver, a Portuguese native named Tiago Sousa-Martins, has been criminally charged since he was shot and injured by the officers.
Another immigrant man, Salomon Serrano-Esquivel, was injured during the shooting while in the back seat of an ICE vehicle. Homeland Security officials originally said Serrano-Esquivel was in the vehicle with Sousa-Martins. But after an attorney told The Banner he was already in ICE custody and Anne Arundel County Police confirmed it, DHS changed its story.
The enforcement in Howard County comes on the same day ICE agents shot and killed a person in Minneapolis, The Associated Press reported. This is the third ICE shooting in that city, which is in uproar over the surge of immigration operations in the state. ICE agents have shot at least six people in the past month, according to The Trace, which collects data on gun violence in the United States.
Baltimoreans planned a protest in the hours following the fatal shooting on Saturday, with organizers planning to rally at Baltimore City Hall at 6 p.m. Other cities nationwide will have protests as well on Saturday.
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.