Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed two bills into law on Tuesday that ended partnerships between Maryland law enforcement agencies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The legislation, passed overwhelmingly by the Maryland Legislature, prevents state agencies and employees from entering into partnership agreements known as 287(g) agreements and cancels the existing agreements in nine Maryland jurisdictions.
As emergency bills, they took effect immediately.
“In Maryland, we will not allow untrained, unqualified and unaccountable agents to deputize our brave local law enforcement officers. Because Maryland is a community of immigrants,” Mr. Moore, a Democrat, said at the signing ceremony.
State Senate President Bill Ferguson cheered the termination of the partnerships.
“We know that ICE will no longer be assisted or subsidized by local law enforcement, ensuring that they cannot abuse or terrorize our immigrant families with Maryland’s complicity,” said Mr. Ferguson, a Democrat.
At the signing ceremony, supporters chanted “Sí se puede,” Spanish for “Yes, we can,” as Mr. Moore sat down to sign the bills.
The new law was roundly criticized by the state’s conservative leaders and sheriffs.
The Maryland Freedom Caucus said that the law ties the hands of law enforcement and endangers communities.
“Instead of standing with victims and law enforcement, Maryland Democrats have chosen to restrict cooperation between local jails and federal immigration authorities even as Baltimore ICE leads the nation in arrests of criminal illegal alien sex offenders,” the Maryland Freedom Caucus said.
Democrat-led Maryland curtailed partnerships with ICE amid a heated national debate over President Trump’s mass deportations, which led to fierce anti-ICE protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens protesting in Minneapolis.
Still, Maryland’s break with ICE met determined opposition, including from law enforcement, as sheriffs said they would continue to work with ICE in whatever legal capacity possible.
Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins threatened a lawsuit against the new law. He said sheriffs are constitutional officers with an independent duty to keep their constituents safe, and the new law undermines that duty.
“Listen, every single day we work with other federal agencies: the U.S. Marshals, the FBI, the Secret Service. We have memorandums of agreement with a lot of these agencies. What’s any different than cooperating with ICE?” he told The Washington Times.
Other law enforcement departments, from Carroll County to Harford County, echoed the sentiment, arguing that banning the agreements would only prompt ICE to increase its presence in the state.
“Doing away with 287(g) has been sold by some legislators as the solution to getting ICE out of Maryland. The opposite will happen,” Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said. “You will still see ICE, probably in greater numbers, doing the mission that they are lawfully required and charged to do.”
The Maryland Freedom Caucus said that sheriffs have warned that ending cooperation with ICE will not make communities safer but will “lock down law enforcement and shift encounters from controlled jail transfers to street-level confrontations.”
• Kerry Picket contributed to this report.
• Mary McCue Bell can be reached at mbell@washingtontimes.com.
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