MD sheriffs file lawsuit over immigration law they say will ‘obstruct’ their work

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The majority of Maryland’s 24 sheriffs filed a civil suit in federal court Tuesday to block the Community Trust Act, which the suit said would hamper sheriffs’ duties to work with federal authorities to combat illegal immigration.

The civil suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt by sheriffs from 17 counties, claims the law would “intentionally obstruct federal law enforcement and thwart Plaintiffs’ obligation to uphold the Constitution of the United States.”

“Maryland’s blatant defiance of federal immigration law is not merely a political disagreement or passive abstention; it is deliberate, disruptive action that jeopardizes the public safety of all Americans,” the suit says.

The suit was filed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that works to restrict immigration, on behalf of sheriffs from Allegany, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Kent, Queen Anne’s, St. Mary’s, Somerset, Talbot, Washington, Wicomico and Worcester counties.

It lists the state of Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) as defendants. Brown’s office said Wednesday morning that it would not comment on the court case.

The suit comes more than a month after the Community Trust Act was passed, on the last day of the legislative session, and just days after Moore said he would not sign the bill, but would let it become law without his signature.

Moore said in a statement Friday that he agrees with the bill’s goal of keeping local police focused on local crime, and that the state should “not let untrained, unqualified, and unaccountable ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents deputize our law enforcement officers to do immigration work.”

But he also said the bill “presents real implementation challenges that must be addressed through executive action and in next year’s legislative session.”

The act, Senate Bill 791, was sponsored by Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard), and would end the practice of accepting administrative warrants from federal ICE agents to hold immigrant detainees. Under the law, local law enforcement officials would only be obligated to recognize a judicial warrant from an ICE agent.

The act has been called a necessary complement to the emergency bill passed and signed early in the legislative session that banned so-called 287(g) agreements, formal cooperation agreements between ICE and local law enforcement agencies.

Eight of the nine Maryland counties with 287(g) agreements immediately dropped them, and the ninth said the agreement would no longer be enforced. But immigration advocates feared that sheriffs would just continue to work with ICE on an informal basis, which is why they pushed for passage of the Community Trust Act.

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler, the lead plaintiff in the federal suit, is scheduled to be one of the speakers who will discuss the complaint during a news conference at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Annapolis.

William J. Ford has reported for more than 25 years on local, county and state politics.