The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Maryland over its newly expanded sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants, claiming it violates federal law.
The federal government wants the court to block Maryland’s Community Trust Act, a 2026 law that limits how state and local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration authorities — one that became law without Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s signature.
The state now prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from detaining an illegal immigrant or transferring them at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a judicial warrant — a document the feds say cannot be issued by the Justice Department or Department of Homeland Security.
“Despite the known dangers of such sanctuary policies, the State of Maryland insists on placing obstacles in the way of federal enforcement of our Nation’s immigration laws,” the suit said.
Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland, speaks …
more >
The lawsuit alleges that the law unlawfully regulates the federal government by requiring judicial warrants that federal law does not require for civil immigration enforcement and discriminates against the federal government by singling out “federal immigration authorities.”
Local correctional facilities are also barred from asking about a person’s citizenship or immigration status, and law enforcement officers in Maryland are restricted from sharing information they gather with federal immigration authorities. The Justice Department claims that the bill conflicts with federal statutes that bar states from restricting information-sharing about immigration status with federal authorities.
The Community Trust Act, however, does not wholesale prohibit law enforcement from coordinating with federal immigration agents. Under the law, localities can still cooperate, and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown’s guidance for all state and local law enforcement and correctional facilities identifies where state prisons must collaborate with ICE.
The lawsuit cited two circumstances in which Maryland recently interfered with federal immigration enforcement: A Worcester County Jail refused an ICE pickup in May, citing the new law, and a county council member publicly criticized the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office after it released a detainee to ICE, allegedly in violation of the new law.
“Federal immigration officers merely enforce the laws that our Nation’s elected representatives in Congress passed, reflecting the will of We the People,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement. “When sanctuary jurisdictions enact laws to shield illegal aliens from federal law enforcement, it is not merely federal law that is violated, but the voices of everyday American voters are silenced. Today’s suit proves that this Department will never stand for such lawless action from blue state leaders.”
Mr. Moore’s spokesperson Rhyan Lake said in a statement to The Washington Times that the governor has been clear: “Maryland will work with the federal government when that coordination makes our people safer — but we will not let Donald Trump’s untrained, unqualified, and unaccountable ICE agents deputize our law enforcement officers to do immigration work.”
Mr. Brown’s office declined to comment.
The Justice Department is seeking a permanent injunction barring enforcement of the law, which fits into a broader pattern of the Trump administration’s 20 lawsuits against sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide, including those in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois and New York.
In February of last year, the department’s Civil Division was instructed to identify state and local policies that potentially violate federal laws or impede federal operations.
Maryland state House Republicans, who opposed the passage of the Community Trust Act and urged Mr. Moore to veto the legislation, warned in April that the federal government may target Maryland for the policy.
“As Republicans warned during the debate on this bill, Maryland Democrats’ obsession with becoming a sanctuary state has consequences,” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, Allegany County Republican, said in a statement. “These misguided policies jeopardize public safety and have invited this litigation by the federal government. Cooperating reasonably and lawfully with federal authorities shouldn’t be a partisan issue, and hopefully the courts will bring more common sense to this matter than the Maryland legislature has done.”
