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Immigration advocates rally in Baltimore County amid national "ICE Out of Home Depot" protest

Just one day after Baltimore County was removed from the U.S. Department of Justice list of sanctuary jurisdictions, people gathered outside of a Home Depot on Reisterstown Road in opposition. 

The rally was part of the national "ICE Out of Home Depot" event, calling on the store and other corporations to stop enabling policies that endanger workers who are migrants. 

In a statement to WJZ, Home Depot said, "We aren't notified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen, and we aren't involved in the operations. We're required to follow all federal and local rules and regulations in every market where we operate." 

Protestors oppose ICE's presence at Home Depot 

"I'm angry, I'm betrayed, I'm scared, I'm sick of it," said participant Stephanie Petrides. 

Petrides said enough is enough, joining dozens of others to make it clear that they do not stand for the latest actions of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) and the Trump administration. 

"The reason ICE is targeting Home Depot is because day laborers hang out trying to get work, they're just trying to make money for their families, not trying to do anything," Petrides said. 

She was joined by Ben Cruz, who said he hires migrant workers outside of the Home Depot all the time to do projects in his home. 

He said nine ICE trucks came to the location a few days ago. 

"They could come back," Cruz said. "And they could sequester, get kidnapped, and taken away without anybody knowing that they've been taken and where they've been sent to."

Baltimore County agreement with ICE 

The rally comes a day after Baltimore County signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ICE to collaborate on immigration enforcement. The agreement officially removed the county from the Justice Department's list of sanctuary jurisdictions. 

Baltimore County was the only Maryland location on the list. 

A statement released Friday but County Executive Kathy Klausmeier reads, "This agreement makes no changes to the Baltimore County Department of Corrections standard practices and aligns Baltimore County with peer jurisdictions throughout the state of Maryland."

"I think there's something like eight areas that have agreements with ICE such that the local police can collaborate with ICE," Cruz said. 

Protestors on Friday said the best thing immigrants can do is to make sure they know their rights. 

"We're doing things like passing out red cards to day laborers that tell them about their rights if ICE comes to their home," Cruz said. "This doesn't help here at Home Depot, but if someone comes to their home and knocks on their door, they have rights that they need to know about."

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