Maryland might ban formal ICE partnerships. Sheriffs strongly oppose it | The program, known as 287(g), is on the chopping block amid rising anxiety about the Trump administration’s mass deportations

> Maryland lawmakers are weighing whether to eliminate a decades-old immigration enforcement program amid rising concerns about the Trump administration’s efforts to escalate mass deportations nationwide.

> The program, known as a 287(g) partnership, allows local law enforcement officers to sign a collaborative agreement with U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement to work together to deport people who authorities say entered the country illegally.

> Maryland sheriffs’ departments and immigration advocates have been clashing for months over the merits of those partnerships — and their public safety value — before the General Assembly in Annapolis.

> Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, 287(g) partnerships in Maryland and across the country have more than doubled, according to an ICE database. At least 427 agreements between ICE and local governments existed nationwide as of Friday, 292 of them signed since Trump entered office. Seven of those partnerships are in Maryland counties.

> The bill before the General Assembly, called the Maryland Values Act, is an attempt at compromise on what has become a deeply divisive issue in the state, with representatives from mostly White, rural counties arguing that some undocumented immigrants make their communities unsafe — and those in more diverse, urban counties saying that attitude is “terrorizing” their residents.

> Maryland’s counties can decide for themselves when and how to cooperate with U.S. immigration officials. In some counties, that looks like self-designating as a so-called “sanctuary” jurisdiction — meaning local officials have forbidden ICE partnerships. Other jurisdictions, like Montgomery County, have agreed to a more informal cooperation arrangement with ICE. Then there are the formal 287(g) agreements — in Cecil, Frederick, Harford, Carroll, Garrett, Washington and St. Mary’s counties.

> CASA of Maryland, an immigration nonprofit and advocacy group, has been lobbying lawmakers to eliminate all formal 287(g) agreements and pass what they’ve called a “clean” bill that does not include any mandated cooperation with ICE.

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