Republicans, sheriffs warn anti-ICE legislation could lead to more enforcement

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Local sheriffs and members of the Senate Republican Caucus Tuesday decried legislation to prohibit law enforcement partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Maryland as antithetical to public safety.

“The bottom line for 287(g) is it’s actually a great way to protect the community from people who should not be here that have committed crimes, but it’s also a way to even protect our friends in the immigrant community — to be sure there’s a clear process for how people are dealt with as it relates to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement picking people up,” Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready, R-Carroll and Frederick, said at an Annapolis news conference.

Senate Bill 245, sponsored by Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Will Smith, D-Montgomery, Senate President Bill Ferguson, D-Baltimore City, and Sen. Karen Lewis Young, D-Frederick, will be heard in Smith’s committee on Thursday. If passed, the legislation would prohibit Maryland law enforcement from entering into 287(g) programs, which are partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local police agencies.

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.

During the 2025 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation to limit the ability of local jails to hold people with ICE detainers for only two days after they have served their sentence for breaking state laws. If ICE officers do not retrieve those individuals within that two-day period, they are to be released.

According to data from The Prison Policy Initiative, ICE arrested over 3,000 Marylanders in 2025.

Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said his current partnership with ICE under the new restrictions is being “strictly” adhered to.

“Every single time, they are there within that 48 hours,” he said of ICE. “It’s a well-oiled machine if you make it such.”

The bill to be heard on Thursday would end that and the other seven partnerships, completely.

Ferguson has committed to passing that legislation out of the Senate.

“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 last week.

Sheriffs and Republicans say that the existing 287(g) programs have been misconstrued by the Democratic Party as a fear-mongering and virtue signaling tactic to demonstrate their opposition to President Donald Trump and distract from larger issues in the state, like the $1.4 billion budget deficit.

“We want to be very clear: We have no police trained going out boots-on-the-ground, rounding people up and arresting illegal immigrants on the ground,” Sen. Bill Folden, R-Frederick, said Tuesday. “Anybody that’s saying that is not familiar with Maryland’s laws and are not familiar with the policies and the cooperative agreements with ICE.”

Jenkins reinforced Folden’s statement, saying “the only officers” under his office trained to cooperate with ICE under 287(g) agreements are correctional officers. 

“Because of what we do in Frederick County — because of this program 287(g), which is a phenomenal program — we are not seeing the ICE apprehensions that you’re seeing in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago,” said Jenkins. “I fear … if this legislature passes this law, this bill, you may well see what you’re seeing on television across the country. None of us want that.”

Asked what they would say to Marylanders of color who are scared of being detained by ICE, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said, “If you don’t want to get caught up in the 287(g) program, don’t sell drugs, don’t do anything violent, don’t break the law and you won’t get arrested and you won’t get screened in.”

“I think you’re going to see a lot more ICE enforcement in the state of Maryland because of Maryland wanting to become a sanctuary jurisdiction,” Gahler said.