Mary’s shift comes after years of local officers participating in ICE-related enforcement, and it follows a nationwide expansion of 287(g) agreements and associated federal funding under President Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press.
The state’s change targets a key mechanism in the federal immigration crackdown: agreements that let local law enforcement officials act with special federal authority. For example, in Frederick County, officers have long used two standard questions—what country someone is a citizen of and where they were born—and, when the answer was not the United States, local officers deputized under special authority launched investigations into whether the person was in the country illegally, the AP reported.
Under Moore’s new law, those cooperative arrangements are coming to an immediate halt. The AP said the restrictions passed in Maryland’s Democratic-led General Assembly overwhelmingly, and described the bill as highlighting what Moore and supporters said are civil-rights values and a push for accountability in how immigration enforcement is carried out.
Moore told reporters after signing the restrictions that “There needs to be accountability for this organization, because right now the Trump-Vance ICE operation is not moving with proper accountability measures,” according to the AP. Moore’s remarks framed the bill as part of a broader effort to limit local participation in the program that the Trump administration has used to carry out large-scale deportation plans, the AP reported.
Sheriff Charles Jenkins, a Republican and longtime sheriff of Frederick County, criticized the new limits and argued they will put public safety at risk. Jenkins said he was “extremely disappointed with the legislation,” adding that it would “put the public at risk in a lot of ways,” according to the AP.
The AP linked Maryland’s decision to a larger pattern of Democratic-led pushback across the country. Ten states, all led by Democrats, have statewide policies prohibiting law enforcement officers from cooperating in one of the primary programs Trump has used for his immigration agenda, the AP said. The AP reported that laws banning cooperative agreements with ICE were signed earlier this month in New Mexico and took effect last month in Maine, and that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul backed legislation that would bar local officers from being deputized by ICE. In Virginia, Gov. Abigail Spanberger terminated state ICE agreements signed under her Republican predecessor, the AP reported, adding that her order did not cancel existing arrangements with local sheriffs.
The AP also described how the expansion of 287(g) has changed the scale of ICE-related enforcement. The program had been used during President Joe Biden’s administration mainly for immigrants already jailed or imprisoned on charges, but Trump revived and expanded the program to include local task forces that can make arrests on the streets. The AP reported that participation in 287(g) agreements surged from 135 agreements in 20 states before Trump took office to more than 1,400 current agreements across 41 states and territories, with some local agencies holding multiple agreements for different enforcement functions.
That growth has coincided with increased federal funding, the AP reported, including a big tax-cut law signed by Trump last year that allots $150 billion for immigration enforcement—$46 billion to hire 10,000 ICE agents and $45 billion to expand immigrant detention centers. Within Maryland and other states, some Republican sheriffs and lawmakers have warned that limiting 287(g) cooperation may result in more federal involvement rather than less enforcement.
In Maryland, the AP reported that nine counties with Republican sheriffs have cooperative agreements with ICE, and that those pacts must end under the new law. Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler argued the program was safer and more effective at identifying people in the U.S. illegally, telling the AP, “I think what you’ll see is more immigrant enforcement, not less,” and adding that “Our program was the safest way and the best way to identify people” in the U.S. illegally, according to the AP. The AP reported that the Department of Homeland Security responded by saying the new law “will make Maryland less safe” and would increase its workload in the state, with the agency arguing that if local officers are barred from working with DHS, local law enforcement would need to have a more visible presence to find and apprehend criminal defendants released from jails.
The AP said public resistance has accelerated this policy shift, including political pressure stemming from concerns about federal tactics in cities and from separate fatal shootings involving federal agents in Minnesota. The AP reported an American Immigration Council policy director, Nayna Gupta, said public pushback—especially in more Democratic-leaning states—created political pressure and a political opening to pass laws like Maryland’s.
Beyond Maryland, the AP described additional legislative activity aimed at narrowing the circumstances under which local officers can cooperate with ICE. In Virginia, it said the Senate passed a bill on party lines that would place guardrails on proposed 287(g) agreements, with the measure headed to the House after the chamber previously passed a similar version. The AP also reported that in New Mexico, lawmakers cited enforcement efforts in Minnesota as a reason to limit cooperation with ICE, describing a measure that prohibits contracts for ICE detention facilities and bars agreements allowing local law officers to carry out federal immigration functions.
In rural Curry County, Texas, where the AP reported there is an ICE agreement, Sheriff Michael Brockett said the arrangement has provided a secure way to transfer people to ICE custody “rather than federal agents searching for released prisoners on the streets and in neighborhoods of our community,” according to the AP.