Howard County’s elected leaders, residents and students showed up in force Wednesday night for a marathon hearing that included an expletive-laden outburst, drawn by legislation to block a private immigrant detention center nearing completion in Elkridge.

They came dressed in CASA swag and Statue of Liberty costumes, gripping homemade cardboard signs declaring “NO ICE.” They clapped, snapped and waved their hands for each speaker who urged the County Council to pass the ban on permits for privately owned detention centers.

County Executive Calvin Ball said the project is nearing completion but has not met use and occupancy requirements. The county on Monday revoked the center’s building permit, but that didn’t deter hundreds of protesters from staging a rally outside county headquarters that night.

“What we will not do is blur the line between public safety and discrimination based upon fear or identity,” Ball, a Democrat, said at the hearing Wednesday night. “Tonight, we are drawing that line clearly.”

County records show the facility, at 6522 Meadowridge Road, has been in the works for months. However, the public first learned of its existence Friday, when Ball announced he would pursue the emergency legislation.

The office building is owned by Genesis GSA Strategic One and is being retrofitted for detention purposes by a third party company, McKeever Services.

The County Council isn’t scheduled to vote on the measure until Thursday evening, but all five members — Democrats Opel Jones, Christiana Rigby, Liz Walsh and Deb Jung and Republican David Yungmann — have indicated they intend to approve the ban.

A detention center in an office park was never contemplated when the county’s zoning laws were written, Yungmann said. However, the councilmember worries about the county’s financial liability in blocking a project that was nearly complete.

“I don’t think they’re just going to walk away,” Yungmann said following Ball’s testimony.

The company assumed that risk, Ball said, when it invested in building a private detention center in proximity to the community.

“We live in a litigious society,” he said. “We can’t let fear hold us captive.”

Walsh has introduced additional emergency legislation addressing immigration enforcement on county property and declaring contracts in support of such enforcement void and unenforceable. Ball said his administration supports the bill.

Dozens of residents, elected leaders and candidates signed up to speak at the hearing in favor of the emergency legislation.

U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth, a Democrat who has visited ICE’s detention facility in Baltimore, said Maryland’s federal delegation has many questions about safety and detainees’ access to medication, attorneys and families.

“We are living in dark and scary times,” Elfreth said, adding that she feels it difficult to keep the faith. “What gives me hope are the people in this room.”

Even with the council’s unanimous support, one Howard County resident of 10 years testified that the hearing was a crucial opportunity for residents to strongly voice their opposition.

“We will never let private industry turn a profit on human misery in our county,” he said.

Criticism of the legislation didn’t come until nearly four hours into the hearing, when a woman wearing a picture of Rachel Morin around her neck approached the microphone.

Morin, a Harford County resident, was raped and murdered in 2023 while she was out for her daily run on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air. Her case became a flashpoint in the 2024 election cycle because Victor Martinez-Hernandez, the man convicted in her killing, had entered the country illegally.

“Not one person has said anything about a victim here,” said the woman, who was listed in the sign-up form as Ashley Asberry.

“This isn’t about race. This is about this county being completely delusional, supporting and enabling criminals who are here illegally,” she said.

Anyone who interferes with the law should be deemed a domestic terrorist and should be detained themselves, the woman said.

“You want to create an Airbnb for illegal criminals? Are you fucking kidding me?” she said, prompting Jones to pause the clock and ask her to refrain from using vulgar language.

The woman resumed her testimony and soon began shouting at Walsh and others that “you’re all criminals.”

As police officers entered the meeting room, she stood and walked around with her middle fingers raised while shouting expletives.

As other attendees booed her, officers escorted her from the building.

This story has been updated.