Maryland lawmakers recently banned county and local law enforcement agencies from entering into agreements with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement — and in the largely Democratic state, a vast majority of 2026 General Assembly primary candidates agree with the ban.
Del. Teresa Woorman, D-Montgomery, who represents District 16, said banning police from cooperating with ICE builds trust between local officers and immigrant communities and allows immigrants to feel safer when reporting crimes.
“Immigration is personal to me,” Woorman said. “I grew up in this country undocumented, so I know what it feels like to live with that uncertainty and fear.”
While Democrats largely support the ban, many Republican candidates disagree with it, saying the state refusing to work with federal law enforcement could compromise public safety by removing federal resources from local officers.
Bobby “Al Jolson” Berger, a Baltimore County Republican running for the House of Delegates in District 6, is a former Baltimore City police officer and Al Jolson impersonator who considers himself a “100% Trump MAGA supporter.” He said it’s only natural for local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE agents.
“If I’m a policeman in the county and ICE comes in, I’m supposed to help them,” he said..
287(g) deals banned
To gauge candidates’ opinions of the ICE agreement ban passed earlier this year, the University of Maryland’s Local News Network included a question about the ban as part of a questionnaire sent to those running in the 2026 General Assembly primaries.
Of the 235 candidates in competitive races, 141 responded, with most showing support for the ban and a few others expressing either hesitation or outright disapproval.
The now-banned, so-called 287(g) deals formerly allowed local law enforcement to work with ICE and perform tasks delegated to immigrations officials, including arresting and detaining people. Before the state banned them this year, nine Maryland counties had these agreements: Allegany, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, Harford, Garrett, St. Mary’s, Washington and Wicomico.
Capital News Service previously reported sheriffs from three Maryland counties — Cecil, Frederick and Harford — transferred at least 119 people from their local jails into ICE custody from President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 through mid-November. That accounted for about 5% of all ICE arrests in Maryland during that time.
While 287(g) agreements existed for years, they never before were used so aggressively.
“I didn’t think [287(g)] was a bad program if run professionally. I never heard complaints about it during the Obama years or the Biden years,” said Jerry Donald, a Democrat who serves on the Frederick County Council and is running to be a delegate in District 4. “Trump has used ICE in such a way that anything associated with it has lost the confidence of a majority of the public, so I’m not sure it can continue at this point.”
Democrats’ concerns
Democratic candidates for Maryland’s General Assembly raised a number of concerns with allowing local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE.
“If people are afraid that any interaction with local police could lead to immigration enforcement consequences, they may choose to remain silent even when they have critical information about criminal activity,” said Adrian Muldrow, a Democrat who is running in Baltimore’s District 41.
Such candidates also want to show support for Maryland’s immigrant population. More than 1 million immigrants live in Maryland, and they account for 17% of its population and nearly 22% of the state’s labor force.
“These people from other parts of the world are critical to sustaining our state’s economic system and community vibrancy,” said Dianté Edwards, a Democrat running to be a delegate in Baltimore’s District 40.
Other candidates, such as Del. N. Scott Phillips, D-Baltimore, who is running for re-election in District 10, said they oppose ICE agreements because they don’t want Maryland redirecting state and local law enforcement resources to a federal agency that already has more than $80 billion at its disposal.
Under the second Trump administration and its One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICE has become the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the U.S. It now has more money than the state of Maryland’s entire fiscal year 2027 budget, which was approved earlier this month at $70.8 billion.
GOP cites public safety
Republicans who said they oppose Maryland’s banning of 287(g) agreements mainly cited concerns surrounding public safety.
“I totally disagree with the ban,” said Del. Robert Long, R-Baltimore, who is running for re-election in District 6. “We should fully cooperate with ICE agents. We need their help to identify criminals.”
However, some candidates acknowledged the complexity of the issue.
“I understand the concern about building trust within communities, and that matters,” said Dianna Palmer, a Republican running for delegate in District 2A, in parts of Frederick and Washington counties. “But I don’t believe removing cooperation is the right way to achieve that. We can support law enforcement and still expect that all operations are conducted within the law and with professionalism.”
Dan Katz, former director of Maryland State Police’s Forensics Science Division, is running for delegate in Baltimore County’s District 42A. Katz, a Republican, attributed his support for 287(g) agreements to his trust in local law enforcement officers over ICE agents to handle immigration arrests.
“These agreements were actually a means of ensuring the proper handling of such individuals by highly trained and reputable law enforcement officers when dealing with often lesser trained and unreputable ICE agents,” he said.
For Woorman, it’s personal
When Woorman had the opportunity to vote to ban partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE, she said she felt it was a culmination of her experiences.
“One of my greatest pride and joy is that I got to vote for the bill that banned that type of behavior,” said Woorman, who joined the House of Delegates in 2024. “It’s just unconscionable that it was possible in Maryland to still be doing that when we knew the terrors that ICE could inflict on families.”
She said her background as an undocumented immigrant drew her to lawmaking, particularly at the state level.
“I grew up seeing people that were undocumented like me, having their parents ripped away from them because of just a simple police stop,” she said.
Given the tenor of the times, Woorman said she carries her passport around with her as proof of her immigration status because she presents as a “very Mexican woman” and does not feel safe leaving her home community without having proof of citizenship.