"Maryland citizens have no problem with local law enforcement enforcing federal laws," he said. "The states certainly assist the FBI and others when there are bank robberies. Why would they not assist helping to remove illegal aliens?"
Botwin disagrees with police outreach efforts to illegal immigrant communities, saying U.S. citizens should be law enforcement's first priority.
"At the end of the day, the illegal aliens should not be here," he said. "We are happy to help our local law enforcement in turning in, identifying and getting ICE training to local law enforcement."
But Velez said illegal-immigrant crime victims deserve the same police protection that citizens do, and that illegal immigrants are perceived as easy prey by criminals who assume they are too fearful to call the police. She commended Baltimore police for reaching out to the growing Hispanic immigrant community and hiring bilingual officers and Spanish-speaking victims advocates.
A policy similar to Frederick's would "traumatize" the immigrant community in Baltimore, Velez said.
"Everything we have worked so hard to build up three years ago, all of that would be destroyed in an instant with the [agreement]," she said. "This is not an issue of politics or immigration - this is about good policing."
Others insist enforcement agreements with the federal government have been successful.
"Around the country, this has been extremely effective with gang-bangers and criminal aliens - getting them off the street is a priority," said Del. Patrick L. McDonough, a Baltimore County Republican, who says more Maryland counties should enforce immigration laws. "Just as we have gang suppression units and juvenile units that are specialists in certain areas of the law. These agreements don't translate to a trained vigilante force. It is just enforcing the law."
Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford said the city has no formal policy on asking the immigration status of suspects - and that it doesn't need one. When the agency is asked to cooperate with immigration agents on a particular case, it does.
"Generally what officers and detectives inquire about is things relevant to the incident they are dealing with; I don't know if often, or ever, immigration status is relevant," he said. "What the officers here have to be focused on is keeping people safe. We have to do what we have to do to make sure people in danger call the police."
