BALTIMORE, Maryland — A federal judge is preparing to rule on a lawsuit filed in May by 17 Maryland sheriffs challenging the state's law limiting cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after hearing arguments from the Maryland Attorney General's Office and the sheriffs' lawyers. The suit is led by Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler, and U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox heard the arguments on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
Source: Associated Press, via SWOK News
The law at issue is the Community Trust Act, which became law in May. It bars local law enforcement from communicating with ICE in routine activities to detain someone on a civil immigration violation, and it means local agencies can no longer honour ICE detainers without a warrant from a judge. It is not a flat ban on all contact: cooperation continues on criminal investigations, such as human-trafficking or drug-trafficking cases, and where a person's immigration status is directly connected to an immigration protection. The Maryland General Assembly had already banned formal 287(g) partnership agreements between local agencies and ICE in February.
Source: WHCP, reporting on the Community Trust Act
The sheriffs argue the law puts them in an impossible position and conflicts with federal law. They point to the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, and Dorchester County Sheriff James Phillips Jr. called the law an overstep, saying the key to successful law enforcement is communication between agencies. Gahler said sheriffs are asking whether a jail could be held liable for harbouring if it refuses to cooperate, and warned that if ICE cannot get people through local jails, its officers will have to go into communities to make arrests — a claim the law's supporters dispute.
The law's sponsor, state Senator Clarence Lam, said the aim is to close loopholes left after the 287(g) ban so undocumented residents feel safe reporting crimes and serving as witnesses without fear that police contact will lead to an ICE arrest. David Koelsch, a practitioner at the University of Maryland's Chacon Center for Immigrant Justice and a former immigration judge, said harbouring means providing refuge and shelter, not releasing someone once a detainer is not honoured — the opposite of harbouring. He also noted a federal law bars state and local governments from preventing employees from sharing a person's immigration-status information with ICE, which is why, in his view, the act tries to thread the needle by targeting routine contacts rather than all information-sharing.
The case is still in court, and both sides say they are ready to appeal whatever Maddox decides. Lam said the state could also consider further legislation in the 2027 session if the law is struck down, while Gahler said the dispute could ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The sheriffs' suit was filed less than a week after the act went into effect, and the sheriffs are represented by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, according to the Baltimore Sun's reporting on the filing.