Maryland 'sanctuary' bill limiting ICE cooperation sets up clash with Trump

Jeff Barker, The Baltimore Sun on Apr 13, 2026

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Maryland is moving to further curb local cooperation with immigration authorities, placing it at odds with Republicans and the Trump administration in a widening fight over federal enforcement efforts.

As its 90-day session wound down Monday, the General Assembly approved legislation restricting when local authorities can detain individuals they believe may be in the country illegally, and turn them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The House passed an amended version Saturday night, and the Senate voted 32-15 Monday to approve it.

Because it is considered emergency legislation, the bill will go into effect as soon as it is signed by Gov. Wes Moore.

Passage of the Community Trust Act could make the state a target of the Trump administration, which has threatened to identify states and localities as “sanctuary jurisdictions” and potentially cut off or suspend some federal funds.

In a fiscal note accompanying the bill, legislative analysts noted this risk, writing that the bill could cause a “potential decrease in federal fund revenues if local governments are deemed out of compliance with federal law.”

“They have done such a disservice to the State of Maryland,” Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said in an interview Monday. “It is [total] insanity by these people. I’m going to tell you, Marylanders will regret this, and the people who voted for it will regret this,” Jenkins said.

Democratic sponsors said the bill was needed to protect the due process rights of immigrants in Maryland. Democrats have accused ICE nationally of excessive use of force, mistaken or overbroad arrests, and harsh detention conditions.

Baltimore City and some counties — Baltimore, Howard, Prince George’s and Montgomery — already have their own localized versions of the bill.

Democrats said they intended the General Assembly bill as a complement to legislation passed in February prohibiting certain formal agreements between local police and correctional officers and ICE. Afterward, Moore issued three directives clarifying that state and local agencies may still cooperate with ICE on criminal matters and immigration detainers.

After Moore signed the bill on 287(g) agreements, sheriffs gathered in Annapolis to speak against the measure.

The sheriffs vowed to continue working with ICE within a narrow framework, such as sending arrest sheets to ICE or holding individuals for up to 48 hours in local jails for ICE officials.

Ending those legal, informal interactions with ICE was part of the impetus for sponsoring the “Community Trust Act,” Democrats said.

The immigration issue reaped political dividends for President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans in the 2024 election. Among other cases, Trump and others publicly raised the 2023 murder of Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old Harford County mother of five. The suspect had entered the United States unlawfully four times in early 2023 in Texas and New Mexico.

More recently, “I feel those (political) dynamics have really changed,” said Maureen Sweeney, a law school professor and director of the Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice.

She said there has been “a disconnect between the administration’s rhetoric, which was all about ‘We’re going to target dangerous people and the worst of the worst’ and the reality of who it is that’s living here in our country — that is, many people who have lived here for decades who have many connections to our community.”

But Republicans said during House floor debate Saturday night that Marylanders won’t like the Democratic-sponsored bill.

“This is the Maryland Sanctuary State Act of 2026, and I will tell you that polling is against protecting criminal illegal immigrants,” said Republican state Del. Kathy Szeliga of Baltimore County.

Asked about the Maryland measure on Monday, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Baltimore Sun: “ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities — local officials should work with them, not against them.”

She said the administration “will not waver on enforcing federal immigration law no matter how much Democrat politicians try to obstruct us.”

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