A key Maryland state Senate committee approved a bill late Thursday barring informal state and local police coordination with federal immigration agencies, setting the stage for the bill’s passage days before the General Assembly’s finale on Monday.
The bill is expected to be considered by the full Senate on Friday.
The last-minute vote by the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee revived a measure that has missed critical deadlines and lingered untouched since mid-February, and follows weeks of pressure from activists, local elected officials and lawmakers co-sponsoring the bills.
The Community Trust Act, if it becomes law, would block corrections officials and law enforcement from holding or detaining an individual for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unless a judge has issued a warrant. The bill includes exceptions for felony convictions or crimes listed on the sex offender registry list.
The bill does not limit ICE from conducting immigration enforcement in accordance with federal law, lawmakers said.
Supporters are cautiously optimistic, as the bill could face procedural hurdles as time to pass legislation grows short. Immigrant rights groups have negotiated for years to detangle local police from from federal immigration procedures.
“Yesterday was a tremendously encouraging moment in a very dark time that our community is facing,” said Cathryn Jackson, policy director of We Are CASA, an immigrant advocacy group.
“The Senators on [the committee] and the Senate president are on the right side of history,” she said. A news conference planned for later will feature Senate President Bill Ferguson. The Baltimore Democrat’s support of the measure is key to the bill’s passage.
The bill draws a line between local law enforcement and ICE cooperation and mirrors similar laws passed by several Maryland counties in recent months.
Law enforcement associations oppose it, saying the Trust Act would constrain “routine operational components” between corrections officers and police and federal agencies.
Darren Popkin, executive director of the Maryland Chiefs of Police and Maryland Sheriffs associations, said local officials are not conducting immigration enforcement by telling ICE they have someone in custody the feds are seeking.
The majority of people who have been detained during the Trump administration’s sweeping deportation campaign do not have a criminal record, according to a Banner analysis of deportation records.
Ferguson told reporters Friday that the bill “makes it clear that there is still going to be communication when it comes to violent crimes.”
“However, what we don’t want are minor, little crimes being used as pretext to round people up and send them to ICE,” he said.
The chamber leader said trust between communities and police fosters public safety.
“When there is not trust, people don’t come forward, they don’t report crimes, and crime perpetuates,” he said.
Lawmakers said the Community Trust Act closes a loophole left behind after they banned formal cooperation agreements between local police and ICE earlier this year. Law enforcement officials said they would continue to cooperate with ICE even after they terminated their so-called 287(g) agreements.
“We felt it was important to close this down right away,” said Sen. Clarence Lam, a Democrat from Howard County who sponsored the Senate’s bill.
“It became immediately apparent after the governor signed the 287(g) ban into law that local law enforcement agencies decided that they were going to sidestep the bill by working through a loophole to use the local jails as a front door to ICE’s deportation machine,” he said.
Del. N. Scott Phillips, a Democrat of Baltimore County, sponsored the bill in the House. He said during a committee hearing the Community Trust Act “draws a clear constitutional line” between the job of state and local police and civil immigration enforcement.
Phillips said what the bill does not do is “equally important.”
He told the committee the bill “does not shield violent offenders. It does not interfere with federal supremacy.”
Earlier this month We Are CASA released a letter signed by dozens of local officials in support of the Trust Act.
The bill now heads to the Senate floor for debate and final approval. The House will then consider the bill.
Lawmakers continue to advance a flurry of immigration-related bills. Both chambers have approved a proposal to digitally unmask federal agents using technology when someone wants to sue them for violating their constitutional rights. That same bill clears a path for plaintiffs to sue federal agents for civil rights violations.
Bills creating minimum standards for private detention centers, protecting certain sensitive locations and keeping state data from being used by federal immigration agents are also advancing.
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