‘Offensive to humankind’: Peña-Melnyk, Ferguson support MD legislation to limit ICE

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Presiding officers in the Maryland General Assembly plan to advance legislation to limit Immigration and Customs Enforcement action in Maryland, taking a hard stance against President Donald Trump‘s policy execution across the United States.

“Immigrants deserve to live with dignity and respect,” House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s, said after the start of the 2026 legislative session Wednesday. “How can we as Americans stand by the disrespect, the abuses, people losing their lives, civil rights violations?”

The support comes at the chagrin of her and Senate President Bill Ferguson‘s Republican counterparts.

“This is not some, like, rogue agency that got set up by executive order or something like that,” Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready, R-Carroll and Frederick, said, noting that ICE was established after Sept. 11, 2001. “Things were not enforced for many years the way they’re being enforced now. The reason that they’re surging so many resources is because they don’t have cooperation.”

Peña-Melnyk, herself an immigrant, and Ferguson, D-Baltimore City, have expressed support for legislation to completely prohibit Maryland jurisdictions from entering into 287 (g) agreements with ICE and banning law enforcement from wearing masks that conceal their faces while on duty.

In Maryland, eight counties have entered into 287 (g) agreements with ICE, allowing them to alert the agency when people who entered the U.S. illegally are held in their facilities for breaking state laws. 

There are other forms of 287 (g) agreements that Maryland counties don’t participate in, including the delegation of certain immigration enforcement powers to local officers and the ability for law enforcement to serve and execute warrants for people held in local jails.

In 2025, the General Assembly passed the Maryland Values Act, which was amended in the final hours of the legislative session to create a statewide standard that requires local jails holding individuals who entered the country illegally who have been convicted of crimes of violence, offenses requiring enrollment on the sex offender registry, driving under the influence or participation in gang activity to keep them for 48 hours to facilitate ICE detainers. If ICE does not appear to detain them within that time period, those people are to be released.

This year’s legislation would bar local law enforcement agencies from entering into those agreements entirely.

Addressing the press Wednesday, Ferguson called ICE a “paramilitary force” that has “disrupted and been offensive to humankind.”

“Until there is a major shift, until there is a major restructuring of how that organization functions, Maryland should not be partnering and furthering an organization that does not follow Maryland values,” he said. 

House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy, R-Frederick, represents the county with one of the state’s longest-running 287 (g) programs. He argued at a news conference Tuesday that the partnerships are a “net gain” because they don’t cost jurisdictions to run and the federal government provides funding for them. 

“It’s like … they’re making public safety programs political,” he said. “The 287 (g) program is not ICE. It’s not what you’re seeing on TV or what’s getting shared all over YouTube and this and that. These programs are very narrow in scope.” 

Ferguson and Peña-Melnyk also stand behind legislation sponsored by Sen. Malcolm Augustine, D-Prince George’s, and Del. Nicole Williams, D-Prince George’s, to prohibit law enforcement officers of all stripes from wearing “any opaque mask, garment, helmet, headgear, or other item that conceals or obscures the face of an individual.”

Ferguson said he would be “terrified” if he were approached by a masked person while in his car.

“That’s not how you build trust in policing,” he said.

Peña-Melnyk said in an interview with The Daily Record last week that “we all have a right to know and see who is apprehending us.”

“It is really humiliating and scary to be accosted by someone that you cannot even see and you don’t know who they are,” she said. “You truly don’t know who they work for, and you need transparency and you need respect and stability, and that’s something that’s lacking right now.”

Asked how Maryland can apply state laws to federal law enforcement, Ferguson noted that the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that powers not delegated to the federal government are ceded to individual states. 

“I know there is contention about this, but that will have to be figured out in the courts,” he said.

It’s unclear how Maryland officers would enforce this.

Asked about the legislation, Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey argues that, if law enforcement shouldn’t wear masks, perhaps protestors should be prohibited from wearing them as well. 

“Is this really something that most Marylanders want to see us address, or is this just, you know, politicking in an election year and a certain group trying to placate their base?” he asked.

Peña-Melnyk stood firm in her position Wednesday afternoon.

“My God that I believe in loves everyone, and respect is important, and, at the very least, we should be able to agree on that, regardless of what party you belong to,” she said. “It’s important.”

This story has been corrected. Del. Nicole Williams was misidentified as the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus.