Outraged by stories of immigration officers raiding workplaces, yanking people from vehicles and breaking up families, top Maryland lawmakers say they’ll ban cooperation agreements between local law enforcement and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Known as 287(g) agreements, for the portion of federal law that authorizes them, the programs enlist the help of local police, sheriffs and jails in enforcing immigration laws. An effort to ban the agreements fizzled in the waning moments of the Maryland General Assembly’s last session in April.

Eight Maryland counties have agreements with ICE.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said lawmakers had “a really difficult conversation” about the agreements last session. Since then, he’s been moved by the “lawlessness” and “inhumane” actions of ICE.

“This is not something we can aid and abet here in the state of Maryland,” said Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat.

The Senate is where the 287(g) ban stalled in the spring, after a version was approved by the House of Delegates. Ferguson says the ban will be “the first order of business” in the Senate at the next regularly scheduled General Assembly session in January.

“What we imagined to be bad has been worse since leaving session,” Ferguson said. “The way they are treating humans is unbelievable.”

Lawmakers who have pushed to get rid of 287(g) agreements welcomed Ferguson’s backing of the measure.

“I’m looking forward to working with the senators on this bill and seeing it across the finish line,” said Del. Nicole Williams, a Prince George’s County Democrat and sponsor of the 287(g) ban.

Williams and advocates for immigrants will rally in Baltimore on Friday as they begin their push for the ban.

“We know that enacting this law to ban the 287(g) agreements will not solve all of the concerns people have with ICE, but it’s a step in the right direction,” she said.

Del. Luke Clippinger, a Baltimore Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said local police and sheriffs should be focused on enforcing local laws, “as opposed to doing the federal government’s job and being an arm of the Trump administration.”

To underscore their position, House Democrats posted a video on social media Thursday night of footage of ICE arrests and noting they’d voted twice to ban the 287(g) agreements.

The federal Immigration and Nationality Act’s Section 287(g) allows ICE to delegate enforcement responsibilities to local law enforcement. There are variations of such agreements, and the most common ones enable local officials to screen jail detainees for potential immigration violations and to serve immigration warrants.

Another version of 287(g) agreements, known as the “task force model,” trains local officers to investigate immigration status, but that is effectively banned under a 2021 Maryland law. Frederick County previously had a task force model agreement, which was the subject of a high-profile lawsuit brought by a woman from El Salvador who was arrested on a lunch break; the case was settled for $100,000.

Proponents of the immigration cooperation agreements, including several local sheriffs, say they help ICE identify people who commit crimes while living in the U.S. without documentation. Opponents argue the agreements foster distrust with local police in immigrant communities.

Allegany, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, St. Mary’s and Washington counties have agreements with ICE to serve warrants or screen jail detainees.

The agreements in Cecil, Frederick and Harford counties date to 2020; the remaining counties inked their agreements this year.

Part of the reason the ban wasn’t approved in the spring was that some feared backlash from President Donald J. Trump, said Sen. William C. Smith Jr., who sponsored a version of the 287(g) ban. His bill didn’t pass, even though he is chair of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

“In April, there were a lot of people who, rightfully so, were skeptical or hesitant to do something that would spark or trigger the ire of the federal government or Donald Trump,” said Smith, a Montgomery County Democrat. They felt the state could come in for retribution, such as slashed federal funding.

The fact that Trump has committed “a fiscal assault on Maryland anyway” may cause some hesitant lawmakers to come around, Smith said.

“We are dealing with an asymmetric actor in the White House, so you might as well live your values and enshrine them in law,” Smith said.

Sen. Karen Lewis Young, a Democrat from Frederick County, said the problematic ICE actions in recent months have underscored the need for local and state government to steer clear of cooperation. She called last session’s failed ban on ICE agreements a matter of “unfinished business” that needs to be addressed.

“In the last eight to 10 months, we have seen, not only in Maryland but around the country, such egregious violations of due process of constitutional rights,” Lewis Young said. “I certainly feel that we’ve got to do something.”

It’s not clear where Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, stands on the proposal to ban ICE agreements. Asked for a comment, Moore spokesperson Rhyan Lake said the governor would give careful consideration to bills once they are introduced.

“Governor Moore’s guidance to law enforcement agencies has been very clear: Maryland will always prioritize public safety and follow the Constitution,” Lake wrote in a statement. “Any legislation relating to 287(g) will be assessed with that commitment at the forefront.”