UPDATE: ICE Partnership with Wicomico County

SALISBURY, Md. — Wicomico County is moving forward with a new approach to address immigration-related enforcement after a meeting between County Executive Julie Giordano and Sheriff Mike Lewis. The two discussed a potential partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and reviewed options for local deputies to assist in serving immigration-related warrants.

Giordano explained that the initial Jail Enforcement Model (JEM) was deemed unfeasible due to staffing shortages. Instead, the county will adopt the Warrant Service Model (WSO), which allows local deputies to serve warrants in immigration cases.

“When somebody is in our correctional facility and they’re flagged for immigration issues, instead of being released after serving their sentence, the deputy will serve another warrant. The individual will then be held at our detention center for an additional 48 hours,” Giordano said. During this time, ICE officers will assess the individual’s status and decide whether to hold them in custody or release them.

While there is a law preventing counties from holding individuals for immigration violations beyond their sentence, Giordano noted that entering a 287G program would allow them to retain custody for the 48-hour period.

The main distinction, she emphasized, is that deputies will only serve the warrants and hold individuals for 48 hours, where ICE will then intervene.

“This is about public safety. We are trying to keep the community safe. If you’re a productive member of society—going to work every day, sending your kids to school, not causing trouble—we want you in our community,” Giordano said. “However, if you’ve already broken immigration laws and are committing crimes locally, those are the people we don’t want in our community.”

Giordano also clarified that the program will come at no additional cost to the county. Training for deputies, which will be provided by the federal government, will consist of an eight-hour course covering the basics of serving immigration-related detainers.

She added that she is continuing to work closely with ICE and local law enforcement to finalize the details, though no official start date has been set as logistics are still being worked out.