The Maryland legislature quietly dropped plans to prohibit state law enforcement agencies from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The bill to prevent 287(g) agreements between local law enforcement agencies and ICE was filed in March as a reply to the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, according to CBS News.
A 287(g) agreement authorizes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deputize local law enforcement to act as adjuncts to help enforce federal immigration policy.
Local officials receive training in interviewing migrants to determine status, access, and to use federal computer systems to input data. They can also be used to serve warrants and notices to appear.
Like Democrats elsewhere, Maryland legislators sought to prevent the cooperation between local authorities and federal officers and proposed the Maryland Values Act, Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, and the Maryland Data Privacy Act to prevent it.
Several Maryland sheriff’s offices have already entered into such agreements with federal officials, according to the Baltimore Banner.
Maryland’s Attorney General also joined eleven states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration insisting that Trump’s attempt to use local law enforcement officials for immigration enforcement is unconstitutional and that the Supremacy Clause prohibits such action, CBS News reported in January.
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