Maryland House committee passes bill to end ICE contracts

Katharine Wilson, The Baltimore Sun on Jan 28, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Committees in the Maryland House of Delegates and state Senate have each passed legislation to end local formal agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sending the legislation to the floor of both chambers.

The House Judiciary Committee passed the legislation Wednesday, 12-7, and the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee passed its bill Tuesday, 8-3. The House committee’s vote had all but one present Democrat, Del. Frank Conaway, voting in support and all Republicans voting against. The Senate committee’s vote was along party lines with Democrats in support and Republicans against.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore City Democrat, said on Tuesday morning that the bill could be heard on the Senate floor as early as Thursday. House Judiciary Committee Chair Del. J. Sandy Bartlett said the legislation will likely be heard on the House floor within the next week. Ferguson and House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk are supporters of the legislation, and a proposed bill to prohibit all law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings in most situations.

Last session, state Democrats were unable to pass similar legislation. Multiple Democrats this session have cited recent nationwide and statewide instances of ICE operations and national scrutiny of the Department of Homeland Security as reasons for the legislation as likely to pass this year.

Eight Maryland counties currently have these agreements, known as 287(g) agreements: Allegany, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, St. Mary’s and Washington. Three of these counties operate under the jail model, where correctional officers screen everyone entering detention facilities for their immigration status and contact ICE if someone is believed to be in the country illegally. The other counties, which all signed agreements within the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, operate under the warrant model of 287(g) in which correction officers only notify ICE to cooperate with an active warrant by the Department of Homeland Security for the individual.

Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano announced this month the county has filed paperwork to have a 287(g) agreement, under the warrant model.

Counties with the 287(g) agreements can hold detainees for an additional 48 hours to allow ICE time to pick up an individual suspected of being in the country illegally.

The legislation would not prohibit local law enforcement from ever alerting ICE about the detainment of a person, instead prohibiting new formal immigration agreements and editing current ones.

Democrats and immigrant rights advocates have argued that the agreements make local governments complicit in larger deportation efforts by the Trump administration, send people not yet convicted of crimes to deportation proceedings, often impact people accused of minor crimes and have made communities afraid of contacting law enforcement.

Republicans and sheriffs have argued that the 287(g) pacts make their communities safer and confine ICE activity to local jails, discouraging large-scale ICE activity out in communities.

“The best way to summarize this bill is that it is putting an over-emphasis on anxieties and concerns of our illegal citizens over the concerns of public safety of Maryland citizens,” said Del. Christopher Eric Bouchat, a Republican representing Carroll and Frederick counties, while explaining his committee vote.

A passed amendment to the House bill made the bill an emergency measure, which would make the bill effective immediately after the governor signs the bill, preventing any additional 287(g) agreements. Counties with existing 287(g) agreements, under the amendment, still would have until July to end their agreements.

“If we wait, it could be fatal,” Bartlett, an Anne Arundel County Democrat, said Wednesday.

Baltimore City Del. Conaway, the Democrat who voted against the entire legislation, arguing that the state is below the Department of Homeland Security.

Democrats in both chambers are moving forward with the bill to end 287(g) agreements, and the bill to prohibit all law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings, days after the second death of a protestor in Minneapolis this month after being shot by immigration officers.

A video emerged this week of the conditions in a Baltimore City ICE processing facility, showing cramped sleeping quarters for detainees. Two people were injured after ICE agents shot at a van moving toward them on Christmas Eve in Glen Burnie — one person was shot in the van and the other was injured in a crash. Ten people were detained by ICE in the Annapolis area on Jan. 13, the day before the start of the Maryland General Assembly Session, according to the federal agency.

________