Update: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed two measures Wednesday that would have expanded protections for undocumented immigrants by limiting local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities.
“I remain steadfast in my opposition to any legislative or regulatory efforts that would hinder cooperation with federal law enforcement and make Maryland a sanctuary state,” Hogan (R) said in a letter to Democratic House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, who represents Baltimore County.
One of the measures would have barred federal agencies from accessing driving records of undocumented immigrants without a warrant. The other would have prevented U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement from housing immigrants awaiting deportation in Maryland prisons.
Hogan’s decision to reject the legislation drew swift rebuke from immigrants rights advocates. Some Democratic lawmakers quickly signaled they plan to try and override the vetoes.
Both measures narrowly passed the General Assembly in April, mostly along party lines.
Senate President Bill Ferguson (D) lambasted Republican lawmakers on Wednesday.
“There are two visions of Maryland, one where we believe in the power of opportunity and one where we create fear and divisiveness with our neighbors,” he said in a statement. “Democrats and some Republicans in the General Assembly believe in the former, but it is sadly clear that Republicans, pulled by a hard right faction believe in the latter.”
Original:
Activists across Maryland have spent months pressuring lawmakers in Annapolis to enact a series of immigration reform bills before the General Assembly’s session ended on Monday. With hours left in the session, they secured two decisive legislative wins.
Before the legislature adjourned at midnight Tuesday, lawmakers passed HB23, which prohibits federal agencies from accessing noncitizens’ driving records without a warrant, and HB16, which prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement from housing immigrants awaiting deportation in Maryland prisons. (Both passed by slim margins, with several Democrats voting against the measures).
But these bills face likely vetoes from Gov. Larry Hogan, who said on Monday that he would strike down any “sanctuary legislation that passes today.” It’s a familiar position for Hogan: Last year, he voiced opposition to ending ICE’s freedom to search through undocumented Marylanders’ driving records. “The governor opposes any legislation that would hinder cooperation with federal law enforcement or make Maryland a sanctuary state,” his spokesman, Michael Ricci, said at the time.
One other bill that had been a major priority for immigration advocates in the state did not pass through the legislature: HB304, commonly referred to as the Trust Act, which would limit the amount of information local authorities are able to share with ICE for immigration enforcement. But some of the law’s provisions—which bar state police officers from inquiring about individuals’ immigration status or transferring them over to ICE for immigration enforcement—were amended onto HB16 and passed both chambers on the last day of the session.
Advocates say each of these measures would go a long way toward securing much-needed civil protections for Maryland’s immigrant population.
“We have over 100,000 Black and brown immigrant members, and all of these [bills] would deeply impact [them],” Cathryn Paul, research and policy analyst at immigration advocacy organization CASA, told DCist in a March 30 interview.
After last year’s widespread protests against police brutality following the killing of George Floyd, this year’s legislative session has been dominated by a series of sweeping police reform bills. A handful of those were vetoed by Hogan on Friday and subsequently overridden by both chambers of the Democratic-controlled General Assembly over the weekend.
Less than three weeks before the legislative session ended, Senate President Bill Ferguson reportedly asked the Senate’s Judicial Proceedings Committee to make police legislation its top priority until a comprehensive package could be sent to Hogan.
As the session wound down, there was some concern that immigration measures HB16 and HB23—which cleared the House in March—would not be given due consideration in the Senate.
But in the final hours of this year’s session, both bills cleared the remaining procedural hurdles to fully pass the General Assembly and be sent to the governor’s desk.
The push for state legislation follows months of organizing at the community level. In many cases, immigrants who have been held in ICE detention or who say they were detained at a traffic stop overtheir immigration status have spoken up about the need to enact these reforms.
A Prince George’s County man named Pedro Ordoñez, who was taken into ICE detention at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup after a traffic stop in 2016, testified in favor of the Dignity Not Detention Act before the House of Delegates’ Judiciary Committee March 3. Ordoñez was brought to the U.S. by his mother when he was about 6 years old. He told lawmakers that “If it hadn’t been for my lawyers, I would have been deported even though I’ve spent almost my entire life in this country.” He was charged with unauthorized reentry into the country, but won a work permit and withholding of removal order in his immigration case.
During a March 18 debate on HB16, Del. David Moon also called attention to the case of Sara Medrano, a Latina resident of Frederick who was detained in a traffic stop by sheriff’s deputies for an alleged broken tail light in 2018. Frederick County has a 287(g) program—which allows local police to assist federal agents with immigration enforcement—in effect, and deputies asked Medrano about her immigration status, according to a statement issued by the ACLU of Maryland.
The ACLU statement recounts how deputies tried to hold Medrano in detention for ICE agents to take her into custody. And upon securing her release and returning home, Medrano reportedly found her tail light was operational. A Maryland Judiciary Case search found no criminal history on Medrano’s record.
“It’s not right what they did to me,” she said in the statement. “I believe there is racism within the police force. It is not just what they are doing against Hispanic people. We are all equal in this country.”
The ACLU of Maryland sued the Frederick County Sheriff’s office on Medrano’s behalf, and she was ultimately awarded $25,000 in a settlement.
Joe Spielberger, public policy counsel at the ACLU of Maryland, said Medrano’s case and the media attention it generated forced Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins to adopt more transparent measures when it comes to his department’s implementation of the 287(g) program.
“Sheriff Jenkins had to issue a written apology for the fear that his deputies put into members of the community,” he said. “[Jenkins] has to hold public meetings for more notice and transparency on how 287(g) has been implemented in Frederick County… That was kind of a higher-profile story locally and statewide that helped galvanize support [for immigration reform] in the Frederick community.”
In the apology letter to Medrano, Jenkins wrote that “the deputies were not properly trained at that point in time, resulting in a lack of understanding concerning policy and proper procedure in handling ICE warrants and orders of deportation.”
But in past comments to WAMU, Jenkins has defended his county’s participation in the 287(g) program, saying, “It’s removed well over 1500 criminals from our county off of the streets and out of the country, including more than 100 gang members, primarily MS13.”
This year’s opposition to some of the state-level immigration reforms has been more muted than in the past, according to Spielberger.
“Every year, the immigrants’ rights bills get the same opposition,” he noted. “Sheriff Jenkins comes every year. And this session, Jenkins ended up not testifying in the House hearing, and instead, we had support for the Trust Act from the Mayor of Frederick, four out of five city council members, two members of the county council and one member of the Board of Education.”
Although neither the House nor Senate versions of the Trust Act made it to a floor vote in either chamber, activists are confident their efforts will transition to the local level and continue galvanizing support for these reforms.
“I think you’re going to see a really invigorated effort at the local level to get these [Trust Act] protections enacted,” Spielberger said.
On Monday, Hogan, wrote a post on Facebook criticizing the Dignity Not Detention Act, calling the House and Senate versions “irresponsible bills” that would “make it more difficult for state and local law enforcement to cooperate with our federal partners.”
Democrats in the General Assembly had demonstrated just hours before that they could muster a veto override should Hogan issue one. But with the legislature adjourned until next year, lawmakers would likely have to wait until next January for an override vote, according to an email statement from the chief of staff of Del. Vaughn Stewart, who sponsored HB16.
When the General Assembly adjourned at midnight on Tuesday, immigration activists could point to the Maryland Driver Privacy Act and Dignity Not Detention Act as pivotal victories they’d managed to secure this session. Stewart wrote on twitter that, “Maryland sent a clear message: No one should profit from human misery and family separation.”
In general, advocates say there’s more work to do, however.
“Although Dignity Not Detention includes additional police protections, not passing the Trust Act is a missed opportunity that still leaves immigrants vulnerable,” Speilberger wrote in a follow-up email statement after the session adjourned. “So we’ll keep fighting for the full protections that should’ve been in place a long time ago.”
Debbie Truong contributed reporting.
