Montgomery County Council members debate Thursday, Oct. 1, whether to block former federal immigration agents from county jobs.

A joint Government Operations and Fiscal Policy and Public Safety committee takes up two competing bills at 9:30 a.m. that approach the issue from different angles. The session will also include a briefing on a June data breach that exposed bank account details and personal information for about 7,500 county firefighters and retirees.

Two bills, two approaches

Councilmember Evan Glass sponsors Bill 18-26, the Continued Excellence in Public Service Act. It would require the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) to run additional background checks on applicants who worked as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) law enforcement officers on or after Jan. 21, 2025, and who took part in deportation or removal operations. The bill targets police applicants specifically, screening for those who "violated an individual's constitutional rights" while enforcing immigration law.

Councilmember Kristin Mink's Expedited Bill 29-26, the Community Trust in County Employees Act, goes further. It would bar the county from hiring anyone who worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after Oct. 1, 2025, to enforce federal immigration laws, WTOP reported. The ban would cover "sensitive" positions across multiple agencies, including MCPD, the libraries, recreation, transportation and housing departments. Councilmember Will Jawando co-sponsors the bill.

The bill is expedited. It would take effect immediately if passed.

"Realistically, there is not a vetting process that will tell us which people have been out on the streets masked and kidnapping people," Mink told Bethesda Magazine in July.

At a June 9 public hearing on Glass's bill, MCPD Assistant Chief Nicholas Augustine said the department had not experienced misconduct by any officer whose prior employment would have fallen under the legislation. The department's existing hiring process, he said, has been effective at screening applicants.

Esther Wells, the Republican nominee for county executive, opposed both bills at public hearings. She argued that if someone is unfit for employment a screening process is pointless, and if screening can identify qualified candidates a blanket ban is unnecessary.

County Executive Marc Elrich had not publicly weighed in on either bill as of July 15, according to Bethesda Magazine. County spokesperson Joe Dominguez said at the time that the administration was preparing to provide feedback at the Oct. 1 committee meeting.

Data breach exposed 7,500 records

The committee will also hear about a June 4 data breach in which a county worker emailed a spreadsheet containing names, addresses and bank account information for roughly 6,800 retirees, 628 active volunteer firefighters and nearly 50 active career fire and rescue staff, WJLA reported.

The email went to 68 addresses tied to current or former volunteer fire chiefs and presidents. Eleven of those addresses were outside the county email system. Staff discovered the error within 10 minutes and removed the email from county systems within two hours, according to WJLA.

The breach happened because a worker preparing direct-deposit payments for volunteer firefighters sent a document with banking data, believing it was cleared for distribution. That worker's account was temporarily deactivated during an investigation.

Chief Administrative Officer Rich Madaleno said in a statement that the county has no evidence the information was misused and attributed the incident to human error.

The joint committee is chaired by Councilmember Kate Stewart on the Government Operations and Fiscal Policy side and Councilmember Sidney Katz on the Public Safety side. Other members include Councilmembers Shebra Evans, Dawn Luedtke and Mink. If either hiring bill clears the committee, it advances to the full council for a vote.