BALTIMORE — Gov. Wes Moore signed two emergency bills into law Tuesday, banning local formal cooperation with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), known as 287(g) agreements. The measure will be effective immediately, and it’s the first bill signed into law of the 2026 Maryland General Assembly session.

“We will continue to coordinate on shared public safety, priorities, including the lawful removal of non-citizen offenders who pose a risk to the public,” Moore said at the ceremony ahead of signing the bill. “We want ICE to be focused on violent criminals and people who are doing true harm to our society, as was promised by the Trump-Vance administration.”

The legislation, he said, “draws a very clear line,” adding that Maryland “defends constitutional rights and constitutional policing” and will not allow local officers to be deputized by agencies that “do not hold the same standards.”

Moore was joined by Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller, as well as Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Peña-Melnyk — both of whom must also sign the bills before they take effect.

Ferguson called the measure a “first and continuing step.” In response to criticism of ICE officers wearing face coverings, the Senate also passed legislation barring law enforcement officers from wearing masks while on duty. That bill is awaiting a House vote.

Still, House Minority Leader Jason Buckel and House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy criticized the new law, calling it “political theater rather than public safety or even effective policymaking.”

In a joint statement released on Tuesday during the signing ceremony, the GOP leaders said that “at the end of the day, all this legislation does is make it harder for law enforcement to protect our public safety by throwing up additional roadblocks to agency cooperation.”

The Maryland Senate and House of Delegates passed identical bills along party lines two weeks ago, with Democrats voting in favor and Republicans voting against.

The new law prohibits formal agreements that allow local agencies to facilitate the transfer of people held in jails believed to be in the country without legal status to ICE control. Eight Maryland county sheriff’s offices and the Wicomico County Corrections Center previously participated in 287(g) programs.

Three counties – Cecil, Frederick and Harford – used the jail enforcement model, which screened people booked in county jails for their immigration status and alerted ICE if someone is believed to be in the country illegally. Six counties used the more limited warrant model, under which ICE is notified only where there is an active Department of Homeland Security warrant. The warrant model counties, all of which began their agreements during President Donald Trump’s second term, were: Allegany, Carroll, Garrett, St. Mary’s, Washington and Wicomico counties.

Shortly before the bill signing, immigrant advocacy group We Are CASA held a rally outside the Maryland State House in support of the law. More than a dozen advocates, immigrants and Democratic lawmakers attended, including Ferguson and Peña-Melnyk.

“This is for everyday Marylanders who are looking around on television every day and seeing the horror that is exemplified by the current administration,” Ferguson said. “In the state of Maryland, we will put a wall around every Marylander, and we will say that here everyone is welcome. Immigrants are … the community of Maryland, and we are here to do whatever it takes to protect them.”

Sheriffs in counties with 287(g) agreements testified against the bill, arguing that 287(g) agreements encourage the federal immigration crackdown to be contained to local jails, instead of in communities. Several sheriffs have said that they still plan to continue working with ICE, just outside of the formal agreements banned under the legislation, and some have said they are looking at legal challenges.

“I think it’s absolutely the wrong legislation, the wrong thing for Marylanders, and obviously these politicians who pass this law care more about the criminals than they do about the safety of the people in this state,” Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said in a Thursday interview.

Democrats in the state legislature have argued that 287(g) agreements often impact people accused of minor crimes, can make immigrants afraid to contact law enforcement, and make the state complicit in the nationwide immigration crackdown.

The general assembly session began this year with several incidents spurring criticism of ICE agents in the state. The Department of Homeland Security purchased a warehouse facility in Washington County for a detention facility in January, and attempted to lease a facility in Howard County. A video went viral of crowded conditions in an ICE felid office in Baltimore City, leading to two tours of the facilities by Maryland members of Congress. In December, two people were injured after ICE opened fire in Glen Burnie. Two people were injured after ICE agents shot at a van moving towards them on Christmas Eve in Glen Burnie — one person injured was shot in the van and the other was injured in a crash.

Still, roughly 70% of individuals as of Tuesday morning who answered a poll on The Baltimore Sun website don’t support banning 287(g) agreements.

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