Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will allow two immigration reform bills to go into law without putting his pen to paper.
The Community Trust Act bars correctional facility employees from asking about or investigating an individual’s citizenship or immigration status or place of birth.
Mr. Moore, a Democrat, said in a statement that the bill keeps local law enforcement “focused on the work that has helped drive Maryland’s historic reductions in violent crime, while protecting the constitutional rights of Marylanders.”
However, he said that it “creates ambiguities around joint investigations that we are working with the attorney general’s office to clarify.
“Local law enforcement must also retain the flexibility they need to operate within the law, share appropriate information and keep communities safe,” with Maryland not letting “untrained, unqualified, and unaccountable [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents deputize our law enforcement officers to do immigration work.”
He said the bill presents “real implementation challenges” to be addressed through executive action and next year’s legislative session.
“For those reasons, I will allow the Community Trust Act to become law without my signature,” Mr. Moore said.
Under the Maryland Constitution, the governor does not need to sign a bill for it to become law. If a bill passes the state Legislature and the governor takes no action on it within 30 days of receiving it, it automatically becomes law.
The legislation, passed on the last day of the legislative session, prohibits state and local correctional facilities from detaining individuals at ICE’s request without a valid judicial warrant. Correctional facility employees will also be prohibited from notifying ICE that a person is in custody unless he or she is a convicted felon, a registered sex offender or meets certain prior incarceration thresholds.
The bill complements emergency legislation banning formal partnerships, known as 287(g) agreements, between ICE and local law enforcement, signed by Mr. Moore in February.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown told WBAL NewsRadio that he has concerns about the “appropriate allocation of state law enforcement and correctional resources to addressing what states should be focused on — our most violent offenders, public safety, community trust.
“To the extent that regulations would need to be promulgated or [to produce] internal guidance to the different facilities, or if the governor felt it necessary to issue an executive order to implement the provisions of the bill, we will work with them in order to make sure they, we, the state, get it right.”
The second bill, the Data Privacy Act, prohibits federal immigration enforcement efforts from accessing state and local agencies’ personal information databases, including vehicle and school enrollment records. It will go into effect on July 1.
