Moore to allow immigration bill to go into effect without signing

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Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will allow legislation to prohibit correctional facility employees from asking about or investigating an individual’s citizenship or immigration status to go into effect without his signature.

“The Community Trust Act advances an important goal: keeping 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,” Moore, a Democrat, said in a Friday statement. “That said, this bill presents real implementation challenges that must be addressed through executive action and in next year’s legislative session.”

On the final day of the 2026 legislative session, the General Assembly passed the Community Trust Act, which bars employees at state and local correctional facilities from asking about or investigating an individual’s citizenship, immigration status or place of birth.

Under the legislation, people detained at these facilities cannot be held at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or transferred to one of its facilities unless agents present a valid judicial warrant. State and local correctional facility employees will additionally be barred from providing information to ICE, and federal immigration agents will be prohibited from entering into areas of those facilities that are off-limits to members of the public. 

The legislation will provide carveouts for communications with ICE if a person is convicted of a felony under Maryland law, if they are convicted of an offense that lands them on the state’s sex offense registry, if they are sentenced to a term that would require them to serve a sentence in a state prison or if they sentenced to and served in prison for five years in another state.

Republicans in both chambers have railed against the bill, alleging that it will impede the state’s ability to collaborate with federal law enforcement and will ultimately lead to the presence of more federal officers on Maryland streets.

Moore has until June 2 to sign or veto bills.

In a statement to The Daily Record, Senate President Bill Ferguson, D-Baltimore City, said his chamber passed the Community Trust Act “because you cannot keep communities safe while stripping people of their rights.”

“The Community Trust Act keeps local police focused on the work that has driven violent crime in Baltimore to its lowest point in modern history,” Ferguson said. “When Donald Trump’s ICE is ripping mothers from their cars and detaining five-year-olds, states have to decide what they stand for. The General Assembly decided.”

A request for comment from House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s, was not immediately returned.

The Community Trust Act is one of several bills passed this legislative session intended to tamp down ramped up ICE enforcement under the Trump administration and builds on legislation signed earlier this year banning local law enforcement from entering into memoranda of understanding with ICE — or 287(g) agreements.

George Escobar, the executive director of the immigrants’ rights organization We Are Casa, hailed Moore’s announcement as “a major victory for immigrant families and for the thousands of Marylanders who organized, testified, marched, and shared their stories to make these protections a reality.”

“We are proud to live in a state where Maryland communities are prioritized over corporate and anti-immigrant special interests,” Escobar said in a statement.

Moore said Friday that his administration is working with the attorney general’s office to clarify “ambiguities around joint investigations” between federal, state and local law enforcement. 

“Local law enforcement must also retain the flexibility they need to operate within the law, share appropriate information, and keep communities safe,” he said. “I look forward to working with law enforcement leaders, the legislature, advocates, and our federal partners to address these issues and ensure Maryland can protect constitutional rights, maintain trust in our communities, and give law enforcement the tools they need to keep people safe.” 

This story has been updated.