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The Trump administration sued the state of Maryland Thursday, claiming that the state’s new immigrant protection law, the Community Trust Act, interferes with the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration law and control illegal immigration.
The 26-page complaint, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, asks the court to invalidate the law that was overwhelmingly approved by the General Assembly earlier this year. The law restricts the ability of local police agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, who will have to meet a higher bar when asking sheriffs to extend the detention of an undocumented immigrant.
“The challenged provisions of Maryland law reflect an effort to obstruct the operation of federal immigration law and to impede the consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe,” according to the complaint.
The federal lawsuit, which repeatedly compares the Community Trust Act to sanctuary city legislation, claims the act violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which preempts state and local laws that conflict with federal law. In addition to the state, it names Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) as a defendant.
Brown’s office declined to comment Thursday.
But Associate U.S. Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement Thursday that approval of “sanctuary policies” silences the will of voters.
“Today’s suit proves that this Department will never stand for such lawless action from blue state leaders,” Woodward’s statement said.
Brown’s office released updated guidance last month on the Community Trust Act for state and local law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities. The 14-page document summarizes how immigration enforcement remains the responsibility of the federal government and “cannot require state and local LEAs [law enforcement agencies] to assist in immigration enforcement, and it is not a crime for state and local officials to decline to provide such assistance.”
The guidance says state and local authorities can cooperate with federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on criminal investigations such as those “undertaken through a joint task force.”
Cooperation when necessary
The Community Trust Act, sponsored by Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard), was approved by the Democratic-controlled legislature to end the practice of local jailers accepting administrative warrants from 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 in February that banned so-called 287(g) agreements, formal cooperation agreements between ICE and local law enforcement agencies.
Eight of the nine Maryland counties that had 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, which passed on the final day of the legislative session in April.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) let the act become law without his signature. The suit filed Thursday cites part of the governor’s message on how the bill “presents real implementation challenges” that must be addressed during the 2027 session.
Moore isn’t specifically listed as a defendant in the suit.
Moore spokesperson Rhyan Lake said in a statement Thursday that the state will work with the federal government when “that coordination makes our people safe.”
“While Trump’s ICE has ripped mothers out of cars and detained five-year-olds, Maryland’s law allows our law enforcement to continue working with federal officers to get violent offenders off our streets,” Lake said.
The federal lawsuit comes weeks after a majority of Maryland sheriffs also challenged the Community Trust Act in a federal lawsuit filed May 26.
That 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 names the state, Brown and Moore as defendants.
Maryland House Republicans released a statement Thursday night to reiterate how they warned Democratic lawmakers that federal action could happen.
“As Republicans warned during the debate on this bill, Maryland Democrats’ obsession with becoming a sanctuary state has consequences,” said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R-Allegany). “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.”
by William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected].
