Ten-year-old Liliana Ramirez stepped to the microphone outside the State House on Tuesday and prepared to speak.

A few moments later, a bill to immediately ban formal agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would become law.

But first, the self-described activist from Prince George’s County told the crowd on Lawyers Mall about the wrenching day her father never came home from work because ICE agents arrested him.

“This bill won’t bring my dad home,” said Ramirez, whose father remains detained. “But it means that other kids like me and other families won’t have to go through what my family went through. And that gives me hope.”

Gov. Wes Moore signed the emergency bill Tuesday to make it the first law enacted from the 2026 legislative session. It had been in the works since before Ramirez was born. Now she and majority state lawmakers are celebrating their effort to end local cooperation agreements with federal immigration agents.

Lawmakers fast-tracked the measure through the General Assembly over concerns of the federal government’s stepped-up immigration enforcement since President Donald Trump began his second term. The law will immediately end so-called 287(g) programs in nine counties. Despite the new law, several Republican sheriffs have said they’ll still work closely with ICE officials.

Republican lawmakers called the ban “political virtue-signaling” and argued the move will complicate federal law enforcement’s ability to identify undocumented immigrants.

Ending the agreements means local law enforcement will no longer assist or subsidize ICE, said state Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, “ensuring that ICE cannot abuse or terrorize our immigrant families with Maryland’s complicity.”

The ban will not prevent state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal agencies when the latter are pursuing those convicted of violent crimes, Moore said.

The ban draws a “clear line” between constitutional policing and a federal agency that does not practice the same standards, the governor added.

State House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, who championed the bill for years as a delegate before becoming the state’s first Afro-Latina speaker, said the legislation promotes Maryland values.

“And that is really important, regardless of what the federal government is doing,” said Peña-Melnyk, a Democrat representing parts of Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties.

During the signing ceremony in the Governor’s Reception Room, there were cheers and chants of “Sí, se puede!” — yes we can — as Peña-Melnyk ended her remarks with “So, let’s go sign this bill.”

Ramirez stood next to Moore and top Maryland lawmakers as they put pen to paper to turn the bill into law.

But it wasn’t immediately clear whether the disentanglement effort by state officials would have prevented Ramirez’s father’s arrest.

Still, the fourth grader said she expects the new law will help, and she wanted to celebrate that belief.

“Because today, Maryland is saying, ‘No more,’” she said. “No more helping ICE tear families apart. No more making kids like me lose their parents.”

Banner reporter Lee O. Sanderlin contributed to this story.