Some states oppose Trump recruiting local officers to help enforce immigration laws

For the past 18 years, officers at Maryland’s Frederick County Jail have asked thousands of inmates two standard questions: What country are you a citizen of? Where were you born?

If the answer is anything other than the United States, local officers assigned with special federal authority launch an investigation into whether the person is in the country illegally. Since 2008, Frederick County has turned over more than 1,884 people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sheriff Charles Jenkins said.

But that will stop immediately under a law signed Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, which bans immigration enforcement agreements with the federal government.

He watches: Maryland Governor Wes Moore delivers the 2026 State of the State address

Maryland’s new law highlights the extent to which Democratic-led states have resisted President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration. Ten states — led by Democrats — now have state-level policies prohibiting law enforcement officers from cooperating in one of the key programs Trump is using to implement his agenda of mass deportations.

Laws prohibiting cooperative agreements with ICE were signed earlier this month in New Mexico and went into effect last month in Maine. New York Governor Kathy Hochul also supports legislation that would ban the delegation of local law officers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger recently ended ICE agreements signed under her Republican predecessor, though her order did not eliminate existing arrangements with local sheriffs.

Democratic resistance has been growing as the Trump administration faces increasing scrutiny over its wide-ranging immigration enforcement efforts in several cities and the fatal shootings of Renee Judd and Alex Peretti by federal agents in Minnesota.

“There has to be accountability for this organization, because the Trump-Vance ICE operation is not moving right now with proper accountability measures,” Moore told reporters after signing the new restrictions.

The longtime Republican Frederick County sheriff contends that ending a cooperative agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement will force him to let some people out of jail who might commit more crimes later.

“I am very disappointed in this legislation, because it will put the public at risk in so many ways,” Jenkins said.

ICE agreements rise tenfold under Trump

Upon taking office last year, Trump revived a decades-old program to train local law officers to interrogate and detain people suspected of being in the United States illegally.

The 287(g) program — named after the section of the 1996 law that created it — was used during President Joe Biden’s administration only for immigrants who are incarcerated or already incarcerated on charges. But Trump expanded its scope to include local task forces that can carry out street arrests, reviving a model that former President Barack Obama halted amid concerns about racial profiling.

He watches: Jeffries says Democrats are pushing to ‘take control of ICE’ as DHS shuts down

Participation in the program has expanded, from 135 conventions in 20 states before Trump took office to more than 1,400 current conventions in a total of 41 states and territories. Some local agencies have multiple agreements covering different immigration enforcement functions.

About 800 entities have task force agreements, giving the broadest authority. As an incentive, ICE is offering local agencies that sign task force agreements $100,000 toward new vehicles. For each officer in the trained task force, ICE covers salary, benefits and $7,500 for equipment.

Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas — all led by Republicans — require local prisons to participate in the program. These states account for half of all 287(g) agreements.

The growth in ICE agreements has come alongside an increase in federal funding for immigration enforcement. A major tax cut bill signed by Trump last year allocates $150 billion to immigration enforcement, including more than $46 billion to hire 10,000 ICE agents and $45 billion to expand immigration detention centers.

Some say less cooperation could mean more ICE agents

Nine Maryland counties with Republican sheriffs have cooperative agreements with ICE. These agreements must end under the new law, which passed by an overwhelming majority in the Democratic-led General Assembly.

Maryland House Speaker Jocelyn Peña-Melnyk, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic when she was 8 years old, said the bill shows Maryland values ​​civil rights.

“We appreciate the compassion,” she said. “We value people’s contributions. We value the Constitution. We value, support and protect civil rights.”

But banning cooperative agreements could prompt ICE to send more of its officers to the state, some sheriffs and Republican lawmakers have said.

“I think what you’re going to see is more immigration enforcement, not less,” said Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Galler, whose agency has turned over about 430 inmates to ICE over the past nine years. “Our software was the safest and best way to identify people” in the United States illegally.

The Department of Homeland Security said the new law “will make Maryland less safe” and increase the workload there.

“When politicians prevent local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers must have a more visible presence so we can find and arrest criminals released from prisons and back into communities,” the department said in a statement.

ICE’s new limits reflect public disapproval

About 6 in 10 American adults say Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents to U.S. cities, according to an AP-NORC poll that suggests political independents are increasingly uncomfortable with his tactics.

“Growing public resistance against Trump’s immigration enforcement — especially in Democratic-leaning states — has created political pressure and political openness to pass laws like the one in Maryland,” said Naina Gupta, policy director at the nonprofit American Immigration Council.

reconnaissance: Nearly two-thirds of Americans say ICE has gone too far in its crackdown on immigration

On Tuesday, the Virginia Senate passed a bill on party lines that would place massive guardrails on any proposed Section 287(g) agreements. That bill now goes to the House of Representatives, which previously passed a similar version.

“I seek to provide some relief to thousands of men, women and children in our commonwealth who live in fear that federal agents or their family members will send them to a country they fled to, or a country they have never been to,” said Democratic State Sen. Saddam Azlan Saleem, who introduced the bill.

New Mexico lawmakers also cited Minnesota’s extensive immigration enforcement efforts as a reason to limit cooperation with ICE. New Mexico’s measure prohibits contracting with state and local governments for ICE detention facilities and blocks agreements that allow local law officers to carry out federal immigration duties.

Curry County, a rural area about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of Amarillo, Texas, is the only jurisdiction in New Mexico with a 287(g) agreement. This arrangement provided a safe way to transfer people into ICE custody, “instead of federal agents searching for released inmates on the streets and in the neighborhoods of our community,” Sheriff Michael Brockett said.

Associated Press writer Olivia Diaz contributed to this report.