ROCKVILLE, MD — In response to a federal crackdown on illegal immigration, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has signed an executive order that aims to eliminate any collaboration between county law enforcement officers and federal immigration authorities.

The executive order — signed by Elrich on Monday — goes into effect immediately. It prohibits county police officers from asking residents about their immigration status and working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the agency behind multiple nationwide sweeps to deport undocumented immigrants. "The Promoting Community Trust Executive Order aims to reaffirm current County policy and improve community security by ensuring that immigrant and otherwise vulnerable communities can engage with County departments, including public safety departments, with assurance that such engagement will not be used to assist in civil immigration enforcement or a federal discriminatory practice," Elrich said at Monday's press conference.

Through this executive order, county employees are prohibited from violating immigrants' constitutional rights or denying county services or benefits to residents because of their immigration status. For instance, county personnel and departments cannot investigate or assist in the investigation of someone's citizenship or immigration status unless required by a court order. They also cannot make threats based on someone's citizenship or immigration status, use county resources to help federal agents with civil immigration enforcement operations, or detain someone based on any directive by DHS on the belief that he or she is in the United States illegally or has committed a civil immigration violation.

"Enforcing immigration laws is the sole responsibility of the federal government of the United States," Elrich said. "It is not in the interest of Montgomery County to utilize its limited resources to facilitate the enforcement of civil immigration law."

In Montgomery County, there is already a policy in place that says county officials do not collaborate with federal immigration agents.

"We have no direct contact with ICE about any immigration issues," said Montgomery County acting Police Chief Marcus Jones, according to The Associated Press. "We're not doing any operations with ICE in Montgomery County."

Even with this policy, the raids conducted by ICE agents have sparked fear and chaos in places like Montgomery County.

The police department and elected officials have put out statements in the past, reassuring residents that they will not be assisting ICE with these raids. Speaking at Monday's event, several council members said it was sad that they had to reaffirm the county's commitment to vulnerable immigrant communities.