Montgomery County leaders are pushing back after a dramatic ICE operation along the Clara Barton Parkway ended with multiple people in the Potomac River, making one thing clear: County police and firefighters were there to save lives, not help make arrests.
In a joint statement released on Thursday, July 23, County Executive Marc Elrich and County Council President Natali Fani-González said the chaos that unfolded near Lock 7 the day before has fueled fear in the community and stressed that Montgomery County agencies did not participate in federal immigration enforcement.
“Yesterday’s incident on the Potomac River was exactly the kind of fear and chaos that federal immigration enforcement tactics are creating in our community,” the statement said. “Aggressive operations that target people driving to work, like this one, make our community feel more like a police state than the community we know Montgomery County to be.”…