ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland Democrats are hoping to limit how local law enforcement interacts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the final hours of the legislative session.
To start the week, the Community Trust Act was stalled in a committee. Now, it is the subject of lengthy debates in the Maryland Senate.
Political pressure applied by CASA revived the bill, which has been heavily changed from its original version.
Maryland Dems want to further limit local law enforcement and ICE cooperation
The legislation now requires a judicial warrant for local law enforcement to detain someone for ICE beyond a sentence. It also prevents local law enforcement from contacting ICE for low-level offenses.
"It'll allow for folks to interface and interact with law enforcement absent the fear that they will be the subject of removal proceedings if they do interact with law enforcement," Will Smith said.
"This is not going to jeopardize public safety and again, like I've said over and over again the criminal justice system still applies here," Smith said.
Republicans expressed frustration with the bill moving late in the session and attempted to filibuster.
"We've had two days of advocacy groups marching out on Lawyer's mall and all of the sudden we get a bill that's fast tracked yesterday," Steve Hershey said.
"The sheriffs are not picking up somebody who's been in the country for 20 years and hasn't committed a crime, they're interacting with criminals," Justin Ready said.
"This bill puts duly elected state constitutionally required office holders to not do their job for their constituents," Will Folden said.
The bill has to move quickly to make it to the governor's desk before lawmakers leave town. Maryland adjourns Sine Die on Monday.
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