Montgomery immigration arrests to go on

County executive rebuffs bid to change police policy now

Amid growing uproar from the Latino community, the advocates wanted Leggett to reconsider the police practice of detaining people wanted on immigration violations, a civil matter, for federal authorities.

Leggett said he would meet soon with Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, who was not at the meeting.

Included in Thursday’s meeting were County Councilman Mark Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park, Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D-Dist. 18) of Chevy Chase and Gustavo Torres, executive director of Casa of Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group.

‘‘I do not have comment right now,” an expressionless Torres said as he left the meeting.

Like many police departments across the nation, when county police run a background check and find a civil warrant in the National Crime Information Center’s database, county policy has been to report to federal agents. The U.S. Attorney General added the detainers to the database in 2002.

Police also detain people who have federal criminal warrants, but criminal detainers are not at issue.

It is unclear how many immigrants the county detained on civil warrants last year. Police told The Gazette in March that 65 people were held on civil warrants, but the corrections chief Arthur M. Wallenstein said the number was fewer than 30. So far this year, police have tracked 22 such arrests.

The practice has sparked fear in the Latino community, giving the appearance that county police are enforcing immigration law. ‘‘What’s important to understand is that we are not going out and arresting people for immigration status,” Leggett said.

A handful of cities, including Houston, have decided to not enforce the civil warrants.

At a heated meeting earlier Thursday with police, county officials and Latino community advocates in Gaithersburg, Manger said it would be ‘‘unethical” for police to choose which warrants to enforce.

The police handbook has not been updated since 1998. The issue did not come to a head until last year, Manger said.

Although Manger said he would prefer that civil detainers be taken out of the database and is ‘‘heartsick” over the impact the issue has had on the immigrant community and the damaged trust in the police, he cannot ‘‘in good conscience” tell his officers not to enforce the warrants.

‘‘If so, I am out of a job,” Manger said at the Gaithersburg meeting. ‘‘Get a new police chief when that happens.”

Staff Writer Margie Hyslop contributed to this report.