DHS Delivers Deportation Speech To A Property Tax Proposal

Maryland lawmakers have proposed letting Howard County charge higher property and transfer taxes on privately owned properties leased as secure confinement facilities. The target is a proposed ICE facility in an Elkridge office park. Local officials say the operation would impose costs for traffic management and public safety that residents shouldn't have to absorb.

It's a proposal. No new rate has been set. No tax has been collected under it.

Homeland Security's response was that no tax would stop ICE from carrying out deportations, which it framed as removing criminal immigrants and making Maryland safer.

The local opposition is no secret: officials tried to block the facility and supporters want to push back against ICE. But the proposal also poses a concrete question about local costs. A deportation slogan doesn't explain who pays for the intersection. Apparently even a possible property assessment has to receive the department's action-movie speech.

Imagine asking who is covering the additional traffic costs and getting an answer delivered as though you've threatened to unplug the entire federal government. Sir, this is about an intersection. The intersection has not taken a position on immigration law. It would merely like to know who's paying for the fucking traffic.

WHO IS TRANSLATING THE QUESTIONS OVER THERE? Does somebody put every inquiry into a machine that turns it into WILL YOU SURRENDER?

IT'S A PROPOSED TAX ON PRIVATE PROPERTY, NOT A DEMAND FOR YOUR BADGE AND GUN.

The county already tried to revoke the development permit. A judge ordered construction allowed to continue while the case proceeds; the county has appealed. That fight isn't finally resolved. Now lawmakers are trying a different lever: authorization to make the privately owned site pay more toward the public burden they anticipate.

Fine. There will be a legislative argument. We can sit through a legislative argument. At least somebody might bring an estimate.

Except the new tax doesn't even exist yet. The bill needs approval from the county's state delegation, the full General Assembly and the governor. Then the county would have to enact actual rates.

The proposal is still standing outside a series of legislative doors, holding its little folder, and DHS has already announced that it won't be intimidated by it.

CAN THEY SET A TAX RATE BEFORE THE PROPOSAL GETS ITS NATIONAL-SECURITY BRIEFING?

Sen. Clarence Lam says residents shouldn't subsidize an unwanted facility's added costs. DHS says taxes won't stop its mission. Those statements can pass each other forever without the second one answering the first.

The private landlord's possible tax bill does not need a patriotic pep talk. It needs a dollar amount and a vote.