Gov. Wes Moore will outlaw a key tool of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation plan on Tuesday when he signs a statewide ban on partnerships between local law enforcement and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.

The Democrat’s signature would mean nine counties must immediately end so-called 287(g) agreements and block federal agencies’ reach into local jails. Sheriffs have said they’re planning a legal challenge.

It’s a sign of how the politics of immigration have changed in the 13 months since President Donald Trump took office promising to deport 1 million people a year.

Last year, Senate Democrats let a similar bill die, worried about backlash from Trump and voters. Now, Trump is losing support on the issue after outrage over aggressive tactics in Minneapolis and other cities, including two American citizens shot to death by immigration agents, has united Maryland Democrats.

States have little power over the federal government’s authority to conduct immigration enforcement. Banning 287(g) agreements gives Maryland Democrats a modest way to punch back against the president and signal to voters where they stand in an election year.

“There are also moments where the right thing to do is also the politically expedient thing to do,” said Del. Ashanti Martinez, a Prince George’s County Democrat who has served as chair of the Maryland Latino Caucus since 2024.

Congress holds the power to change the law but has failed for decades to take up meaningful reform. Some states have tried to step in where they can.

“This issue has been seen as a political football because it is much easier to blame the feds for not doing anything, even though there are things that states have the rights to do,” Martinez said.

Maryland’s General Assembly has failed for years to pass variations of a 287(g) ban, an effort largely championed by Latino lawmakers, including Maryland’s first Afro Latina House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk.

The House of Delegates has passed a ban three times, Peña-Melnyk said in a statement, and passing the bill this year means “telling ICE that we will not cooperate with their rogue tactics in Maryland.”

A ban fizzled in the Maryland Senate last year after passing the House of Delegates, months after Trump’s sweeping promises of mass deportations had already begun to unfold.

On his first day in office, Trump ordered his government to combat a so-called American “invasion,” which included relying on 287(g) agreements.

Top Maryland state senators said they made a decision not to move the bill because they feared a retaliatory federal government and the possibility of the president federalizing the state’s National Guard.

Senate President Bill Ferguson recalled one of many conversations that guided his thinking. At Moore’s request, he met with Major General Janeen Birckhead in March, the head of the state’s Military Department and leader of the National Guard.

“The adjutant general expressed a desire that we try to restrain any actions that could increase the likelihood of federal engagement of the National Guard in Maryland,” Ferguson said during a recent interview.

Ferguson said the Moore administration also shared concerns that lawmakers’ actions could threaten federal transportation project funding.

Birckhead confirmed she met with Ferguson. She said their conversation “entailed a general discussion of the three status’ in which the National Guard operates and the activation authorities under each status; however, there was no recommendation on pending legislation,” she said in a statement.

Since then, Trump has threatened funding for the Francis Scott Key Bridge rebuild, eliminated federal jobs, and cut food, health care and other benefits programs. Trump also deployed the National Guard over objections of Democratic governors until federal courts blocked him.

But it’s been the escalating tactics of federal immigration operations that have most galvanized Maryland’s Democrats.

Ferguson signaled things had changed months ahead of the annual legislative session when he said it was time to pass a bill. What he saw ICE agents do in Minneapolis and a handful of high-profile Maryland cases “shocks the conscience,” he said.

“Everybody needs to stand up and be clear that we will not partner with an organization that operates like this and is literally killing American citizens in the streets,” he said during a January news conference.

Moore has blasted the escalating chaos in American cities and Trump for failing to prioritize violent criminals for deportation. And Moore has been clear in his disapproval of ICE’s actions, calling the agents “untrained, unaccountable and unqualified.”

Moore delayed his support as the bill raced through the halls of the State House until lawmakers were closing debate. He said he would sign a bill that follows the Constitution and promotes public safety.

The Latino lawmakers who pioneered proposals to bar cooperation between locals and federal immigration agents acknowledged that times have changed. The Trump administration has given Maryland leaders a clear path forward, they said.

“The behavior of the immigration enforcement people has drastically changed,” said former Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez, a Democrat from Montgomery County. “So now more than ever, it’s urgent.”

She and former Sen. Victor Ramirez cosponsored the “Maryland Law Enforcement Trust Act” in 2014. Both took office in 2003 and were the first Latino lawmakers elected to the General Assembly. They said they were pleased that lawmakers moved swiftly because passing the bill was the right thing to do for public safety.

“Our communities as a whole will feel a lot better about trusting our local law enforcement,” Ramirez said.