On July 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Maryland and Maryland  Attorney General Anthony Brown, over what the DOJ calls their sanctuary policies that they claim interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of immigration laws. The lawsuit asserts that the challenged laws “are an active and deliberate effort to obstruct federal immigration enforcement.” SB791, otherwise known as the Community Trust Act, was passed in April 2026. In February 2026, Maryland previously passed SB 245/HB 444, which banned 287(g) agreements. However, that legislation didn’t end all cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE in Maryland. The Community Trust Act complements the earlier passed legislation by closing a loophole that letshad allowed local law enforcement agencies and jails to detain individuals based on their immigration status and requests from ICE. The Community Trust Act sets limits on how law enforcement can informally  work informally with ICE, protects people who are innocent or have yet to be convicted of a crime from notification and transfer to ICE without a court order or a judicial warrant, and bans the practice of holding people who are released from local correctional facilities past their release date for the purposes of immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant. 

The DOJ argued the Community Trust Act interferes with federal immigration enforcement, and requested that the court declare the laws invalid and issue an injunction to stop them from being enforced.  

The Community Trust Act does not prohibit Maryland law enforcement from working with federal authorities on criminal matters, nor does it stop federal officers from operating in Maryland. It governs only how Maryland’s own state and local law enforcement resources may be used. The Constitution does not let the federal government compel states to carry out federal immigration enforcement. So, when Maryland chooses not to spend its resources on that federal work, it is not defying the law, it is exercising a right the Supreme Court has recognized. My Office is committed to upholding the rule of law, and we will defend Maryland’s policies because they do exactly that.Attorney General Anthony Brown