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The recent detention of a Montgomery Village man by federal immigration authorities is a setback to efforts by county police to build trust with immigrants.

The case, first reported in The Gazette by Sebastian Montes, also calls to attention the fact that Congress has failed to enact comprehensive federal immigration reforms that could help local enforcement efforts.

The problem is related to the Montgomery County Police Department's policy on its relationship with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The policy, released in February, attempts to strike a compromise between law enforcement bodies that take an aggressive track in pursuing illegal immigrants and those that are more lenient. In requiring officers to report to ICE all people arrested for certain violent offenses, the county's policy was able to neutralize potential claims of discrimination, and was praised by elected officials and accepted by immigrant advocacy groups.

The snag with the recent detention is that court records indicate the man who ended up under federal custody had not committed any crimes that would prompt a report to ICE. This has raised questions about how he showed up on ICE's radar and the county police are investigating.

Gustavo Andrade, senior manager of organizing with Casa de Maryland, said incidents like this absolutely affect the immigrant community's sentiment toward law enforcement. "There's a difference between the announcement of the policy and how it's enacted ... people talk, and they say the police can't be trusted to follow their own policies," he said.

It is unclear as to whether any policy violation occurred, but if that is the perception, then Police Chief J. Thomas Manger will have a tough time rebuilding the goodwill he has generated in the past. Another obstacle Manger points to is that recent budget cuts trimmed his community outreach program by a dozen officers.

"The damage these incidents do is not irreparable and it's not complete," Manger said. "Things constantly happen and we're always in the mode of ‘How can we earn trust?' ... We're working from a position of a good base of trust and we have to rebuild from that."

Manger, in attempting to reinforce the policy, did the right thing in issuing a memo to all officers the day after the man was detained by ICE. The memo reminded officers of the county's practice not to refer anyone to ICE solely on the basis of immigration status and noted the "absolute need to maintain the trust and confidence of our community," by clearing all ICE requests for information or assistance through senior personnel. Critics have suggested the memo, and the policy it reinforces, violate federal law by restricting contact with ICE. Manger maintains that the policy does not violate the law, pointing out that his officers frequently work with ICE, and that the policy helps prevent claims of racial discrimination.

Manger's attempts to assuage the immigrant community are complicated by actions throughout the country that undermine relationships between government officials and immigrants — connections that start off as tenuous because of widespread corruption among law enforcement officials in the residents' native countries.

For example, in Arizona, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who calls himself "America's toughest sheriff," recently stated that his deputies would continue efforts to round up illegal immigrants. And a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey showed that 73 percent of Americans favor a decrease in the number of illegal immigrants in the country. That number is the highest since CNN began asking the question four years ago.

Ultimately, what will help rebuild relations is immigration reform at the federal level, but that isn't likely to happen for some time. Stephanie Lundberg, a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, said immigration has taken a back seat to current issues like health care, finance and energy. It could be months or longer before immigration returns to the forefront.

Until then, Andrade says, most immigrants would prefer to trust police and help reduce crime in their neighborhoods. And, he notes, although community members always keep hope that trust will be returned, incidents like this detention help substantiate deeply-embedded fears.