Montgomery Replace: ICE Reporting Portal Now Open, Taipei Journeys Result in Economic Win, and Please Do not Swim within the Potomac River

Dear Friends,

This week, Montgomery County unveiled a new instrument to assist our residents report ICE exercise. The reporting portal is an easy-to-access web site that permits our neighborhood to share details about ICE exercise within the County. 

This portal shouldn’t be for rapid help or emergencies, and it’s not a real-time tracker. If you want pressing assist, name 911 or the CASA hotline listed under. The portal offers the County a report of what is taking place in our neighborhood, so we are able to spot developments, uphold due course of, and decide whether or not changes are wanted primarily based on knowledge. The reporting portal is likely one of the instruments known as for in two of the legal guidelines enacted this 12 months by the County Council that I proudly signed: the Unmask ICE Act and the County Values Act. You can discover the portal at montgomerycountymd.gov/defending.

On the web site, additionally, you will discover details about current legal guidelines to assist defend immigrant communities. The web site contains movies and one-pagers obtainable in a number of languages, as a result of the extra our residents know, the tougher it’s to intimidate them.

We hear from residents typically who see police exercise (possibly one among our undercover operations or a routine cease) and instantly concern the worst. That fixed state of concern is one thing we wish to tackle. 

I wish to be clear about what the County can and can’t do. We can’t cease ICE from imposing federal immigration regulation in Montgomery County, and this reporting mechanism is not going to change that. What we are able to do is doc what is going on, observe patterns, and take motion inside our authorized authority, together with imposing the boundaries we have now positioned on the place ICE can function and not using a lawful warrant. We haven’t made it unattainable for them to function; we have now simply stated you aren’t doing it on our property with out following due course of. I feel that’s an concept that many individuals in Montgomery County assist. We have authorized limitations, however we’re doing all the pieces inside our energy to reduce the injury ICE is making in communities. 

Contrary to what chances are you’ll hear, that doesn’t make us a sanctuary jurisdiction. It serves to position limits on ICE operations throughout the County’s authority.

There was a report excessive of 60,000 individuals detained for immigration violations final summer time, a surge of greater than 50% over the earlier high-water mark throughout Trump’s first time period. Conditions in most of the detention facilities are horrendous, with individuals being saved in large warehouses and stripped of dignity, respect, and non secular liberty. A new report from Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights discovered that deaths in ICE custody have climbed sharply, with at the least 52 individuals dying because the begin of this administration.

Unfortunately, we’re on this state of affairs. We had been informed that ICE’s focus could be on harmful criminals who terrorize society, however as a substitute, we see harmless individuals being focused simply to run up their numbers. ICE is now the highest-funded U.S. regulation enforcement company, with $85 billion now at its disposal and additional resources to bolster its mission. Therefore, now could be the time to behave, to assist extra of our neighbors and residents.

I additionally wish to share the CASA in Action Rapid Response Hotline: 1-888-214-6016. This tipline may be used to report immigration raids, checkpoints, and/or detentions to assist safe authorized assist and notify households.

We will proceed to do all the pieces we are able to to guard our residents and be certain that Montgomery County stays a spot the place you’ll be able to really feel safe.

Bora Biologics Opening

I wish to acknowledge a really particular opening this week that introduced collectively County, state, municipal, and enterprise leaders, in addition to Representative Alexander Yui, head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office within the United States, to have a good time the opening of a  Bora Biologics facility in Rockville.

The Bora Group is behind the single-use bioreactor (SUB) drug substance manufacturing facility. It is a vital funding right here within the coronary heart of the nation’s third-largest life sciences cluster. We are excited that Bora Biologics will retain all 140 staff who beforehand labored for MacroGenics at this web site. The firm plans to develop its funding and rent extra staff right here sooner or later. The guardian firm is value near $1.5 billion, and its perception in our workforce expertise and our space’s potential to maintain up with their growth plans speaks volumes about the place we’re. 

Montgomery County is dwelling to AstraZeneca, Samsung Biologics, and a complete vary of CDMOs (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) and superior expertise corporations — not simply in pharma however throughout sectors. That did not occur accidentally.

The investments we have now made in our workforce are paying off. We have to proceed specializing in bettering our technological innovation and manufacturing infrastructure to assist our economic system develop. Our Okay-12 colleges, the BioHub Maryland training center, Montgomery College, the Universities at Shady Grove, and the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing all play key roles in creating our expertise. Maryland’s small-business matching grants and biotech funding tax credit, administered through the Maryland Department of Commerce, are additionally steps taken to assist companies that select to launch new ventures right here. 

I’ve been proud to guide 4 delegations to Bora’s hometown in Taiwan since 2023 —councilmembers, Maryland Secretary of State Susan Lee, and a number of other County enterprise leaders have joined me on these journeys. We signed financial improvement MOUs with the mayors of Taipei City and Taichung, and I’ve had the possibility to satisfy with innovators throughout each sector throughout every go to. One factor I hear constantly on these journeys is how welcome immigrants from Taiwan, and Asia generally, really feel in Montgomery County. We have made a aware choice to make sure everybody feels welcome, so it’s not a shock that 16% of our residents are from Asia, and lots of have household connections in Taiwan. 

As thrilling as I discover them, MOUs are simply paper. What I’m pleased with is what occurs between the visits — the continuing conversations with corporations from Taiwan that result in actual selections. Two corporations, one in cybersecurity and one making satellite tv for pc elements, determined after conferences in Taipei to open their U.S. headquarters proper right here in Montgomery County. Now, we’re proud so as to add Bora’s biologics manufacturing experience to this neighborhood, and I want them nice success.

Potomac River Swimming Warning

Even although we’re solely midway via the summer time, we have now already seen two drownings within the Potomac River. Over the vacation weekend, a 16-year-old drowned close to Great Falls Park. This is a video warning from Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer.

I wish to remind everybody that it’s unlawful to swim within the Potomac River. First responders have repeatedly urged the general public to keep away from swimming within the river as a consequence of robust currents and sudden drops within the riverbed. I need the household and associates of the most recent sufferer to know we’re holding them in our ideas throughout a troublesome time.

Our finest protection is schooling. We can’t monitor each sq. inch of the shoreline, so it’s as much as all of us to assist those that won’t perceive the true penalties of swimming the place they don’t seem to be presupposed to.

There are additionally penalties for unlawful swimming, including fines that start at $200. Just as a result of the U.S. Park Police can implement the regulation doesn’t imply that regulation enforcement has satisfactory workers to do this. We proceed to work with our public security companions to boost consciousness and assist stop any extra unintentional drownings.

We encourage you to make use of County swimming pools relatively than open our bodies of water the place swimming could or is probably not permitted, and please perceive the danger that comes with swimming in synthetic ponds close to houses and developments. They could comprise fish and different wildlife, rebar, or stormwater administration infrastructure that you simply can’t see from the floor. There is not any cause to place your self in danger.

Second PFAS assembly on July 1

I wish to thank everybody for collaborating within the second public assembly on elevated ranges of PFAS chemical substances present in elements of a stormwater pond and small stream close to Great Seneca Highway and Key West Avenue. These areas will stay below a water‑contact well being advisory. That means no swimming, fishing, or permitting children and pets to play within the water.

I’ve shared this map above earlier than, however to remind everybody, the places proven in yellow with crimson stripes are the place without end chemical substances had been discovered at concentrations larger than what is taken into account protected for ingesting water. 

This space is close to the previous Public Safety Training Academy, the place PFAS‑containing firefighting foam was used for a few years. PFAS are human‑made substances used because the Forties in issues like non‑stick cookware, water‑resistant clothes, and a few meals packaging. They stay within the surroundings for a very long time, and lengthy‑time period publicity could enhance the danger of sure well being issues, together with some cancers and results on the immune system and levels of cholesterol.

The threat of contamination is low. Studies have proven that it takes years of PFAS-laden water ingestion or consumption of PFAS-contaminated animals to end in noticeable impacts, however out of an abundance of warning, we suggest avoiding the water and washing totally with cleaning soap and clear water in the event you, your pets, or your kids are uncovered.

As a reminder, WSSC Water has confirmed that ingesting water drawn from the Potomac River meets all federal PFAS standards. The take a look at websites the place elevated ranges had been recognized should not ingesting water assortment factors. In addition, non-public properly homeowners within the space have been contacted, and their wells are being examined. If you could have considerations about your non-public properly, go to the Maryland Department of the Environment’s web page on drinking water wells and the Be Well Wise program.

Montgomery County and the Maryland Department of the Environment will proceed extra testing of water, soil, and groundwater, and preserve the general public up to date on what we discover. A County interagency activity pressure is already coordinating this work. 

I encourage everybody to go to the County’s PFAS data web page at montgomerycountymd.gov/PFAS or name 311 with questions.

Extreme Weather Swings

I hope everybody had an exquisite Independence Day vacation. I wish to thank the Department of Recreation and everybody who helped us put collectively two excellent fireworks reveals. Thousands got here to observe. We had great crowds and, most significantly, no severe accidents because of the warmth or extreme climate.

And talking of extreme climate, I wish to thank all of the restore crews that had been known as into motion to assist with energy outages, downed bushes, and different emergencies brought on by robust storms this week. 

Some of our communities suffered via excessive warmth adopted by extreme storms. These are the sorts of swings we are able to count on extra of due to local weather change. In simply this calendar 12 months, we have now handled “snowcrete”, warmth domes, wild winds, a late frost, and extreme drought conditions. There is an actual value to coping with these climate extremes on high of the human prices of lives misplaced.

You can act now to remain knowledgeable. Sign up for Alert Montgomery to obtain emergency bulletins about extreme climate which will impression you at dwelling. Make a plan and construct an emergency package with assist from our Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Be prepared for disruptions in utility service when the climate will get dangerous. Check in your neighbors after a storm or throughout a warmth wave, particularly older individuals. They could also be too proud to confess they need assistance.

Especially through the summer time, concentrate on the indicators of warmth exhaustion and the way that differs from different heat-related diseases, that are extra extreme and should require rapid medical consideration. We have collected loads of useful data on our web site, Be Cool Montgomery, or you’ll be able to go to ready.gov/heat to study extra about defending your loved ones.

As all the time, my appreciation for all of you, 

Marc Elrich
County Executive