ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Leading up to his fourth and final bill-signing session of the year, Gov. Wes Moore announced that he’d allow a highly discussed immigration-related bill to go into effect without his signature.
The Community Trust Act, sponsored by Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard), would end the practice of accepting administrative warrants from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold detainees. Under the law, local law enforcement officials would only be obligated to recognize a judicial warrant.
The act has been called a complement to the emergency bill HB444/SB245, which passed and was signed early in the legislative session and banned 287(g) agreements, formal cooperation agreements between ICE and local law enforcement agencies. Sheriffs from around the state spoke out in disagreement with this law in February.
Moore said in a statement that he agrees with the idea of keeping local law enforcement focused on local crime, but that the bill “presents real implementation challenges that must be addressed through executive action and in next year’s legislative session.”
In Maryland, the governor has 30 days following the end of the legislative session to sign bills or veto them. If the governor chooses not to veto before the end of the 30 days, that bill automatically becomes law.
Moore has signed more than 250 bills into law since the end of the 2026 legislative session in April. Maryland’s legislature meets annually for 90 days from January to April. The 2027 session is scheduled to run from January 13 to April 12.
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veto veto veto please. Not enough time to go through the legislation presented with.
The lawsuit doesn’t force our sheriffs to release criminals who happen to be the targets of ICE warrants. Read the actual law that was signed. If our sheriffs arrest someone for a crime, they can hold them for that crime. What they can’t do is enter into agreements to aid federal immigration with capturing our detaining immigrants unless they have a judicial warrant. It bans them from acting as HS proxies and prevents them from using our prisons as temp holding cells for people they are detaining with a judicial warrant. Ricky Cox needs to go in Nov.
The law will not force our sheriffs to release criminals. If they arrest someone for committing a crime, they can still hold that person for that crime. If ICE arrests an immigrant, it’s their responsibility to detain and hold that immigrant. What our sheriffs won’t be doing is helping ICE execute non-judicial warrants or holding ICE detainees who were captured under non-judicial warrants. Here is the actual text of the law:
SENATE BILL 245
(I) 8 U.S.C. § 1103;
(II) 8 U.S.C. § 1357; OR
(III) ANY OTHER FEDERAL LAW.
(B) THE STATE, A UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, A COUNTY SHERIFF, OR
ANY AGENCY, OFFICER, EMPLOYEE, OR AGENT OF THE STATE OR A UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAY NOT ENTER INTO AN IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT AGREEMENT.
(C) THE STATE, A UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, A COUNTY SHERIFF, OR
ANY AGENCY, OFFICER, EMPLOYEE, OR AGENT OF THE STATE OR A UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT WITH AN EXISTING IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT AGREEMENT SHALL
EXERCISE THE TERMINATION PROVISION CONTAINED IN THE IMMIGRATION
ENFORCEMENT AGREEMENT NOT LATER THAN JULY 1, 2026.
SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take effect June
13, 2026.