Former Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said Thursday that local law enforcement agencies will not follow a newly signed state law limiting cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, directly undercutting Democrat Gov. Wes Moore.
"All the local law enforcement, obviously, we're going to ignore that, because we're required to work with them," Hogan said.
"When they have violent criminals that they're holding in jail, that ICE wants to be detained, they shouldn't be left back on the street. So there's two sides to this argument."
Hogan made the remarks during a discussion with former Arizona Democrat Gov. Janet Napolitano at the Politico Governor's Summit in Washington, D.C. Moore had appeared on the same stage roughly an hour earlier.
Moore signed the emergency legislation Tuesday. The measure blocks local law enforcement agencies from entering new agreements with ICE that allow state authorities to detain noncitizens for up to 48 hours and serve administrative warrants.
It also requires existing ICE partnerships to end by July. Nine Maryland jurisdictions currently participate in such agreements.
Maryland sheriffs have said they will keep working with ICE despite the new law.
"No politician or legislative body is going to tell me that I can't communicate with another law enforcement agency on matters of public safety in my community," Carroll County Sheriff James DeWees told The Baltimore Sun. "I'm not going to stop."
After signing the bill, Moore said the state would still coordinate with ICE on "the lawful removal of noncitizen offenders who pose a risk to public safety."
"You can put any lipstick you want on it; it's all political," Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins told The Sun. "The Democrats don't want any cooperation with ICE. They don't want any enforcement whatsoever."
Maryland joins a growing list of Democrat-led states limiting ICE cooperation. New Mexico and Maine enacted similar measures earlier this year, following states such as California, Illinois, and Washington that already restrict local partnerships with federal immigration authorities.
Hogan also criticized how Minnesota officials handled ICE enforcement activity earlier this year, calling it "an example of what not to do."
"They were all on cable news performing," Hogan said. "The mayor and the governor blaming the president, the president blaming the mayor and the governor, and yet no one was talking about what was actually going on."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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