Seventeen of Maryland’s 24 elected county sheriffs have hauled the state into federal court, filing a lawsuit Tuesday to stop the new Community Trust Act from being enforced. The complaint, lodged in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, targets Gov. Wes Moore and the State of Maryland and argues that the statute improperly cuts off local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The sheriffs say the law would block jails from honoring ICE administrative warrants and from holding people past their scheduled release times so they can be transferred to federal custody.
What the law does
The case, captioned Gahler v. Moore, is led by Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler and 16 other county sheriffs and was filed with the help of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, according to Maryland Matters. In their complaint, the sheriffs argue that the Community Trust Act violates the Supremacy Clause and intentionally obstructs federal law enforcement. They are asking a federal judge for an injunction to put the law on ice while those constitutional claims are sorted out.
How the law changes ICE access
Senate Bill 791, known as the Community Trust Act, blocks state and local agencies from honoring routine ICE administrative detainers unless there is a judicial warrant in hand, limits routine questioning about immigration status in many custodial settings, and tightens data sharing with federal immigration agents, as WMAR2 News reports. Lawmakers passed the measure at the end of the 2026 legislative session, and because it went through as an emergency bill, it took effect immediately after Gov. Moore allowed it to become law without his signature. Supporters say the overhaul is meant to rebuild trust in immigrant communities and keep local officers focused on violent crime rather than federal immigration work.
What the sheriffs say
Sheriffs backing the lawsuit told reporters that the statute ties their hands in ways they believe endanger public safety and forces them to choose between state rules and federal requests. “This law is a dangerous mandate that has effectively turned Maryland into a sanctuary state,” FAIR attorney Dale Wilcox said, according to WBAL. The plaintiffs say they intend to seek emergency relief so they can continue longstanding cooperative practices with federal agencies while the case plays out.
Supporters say trust matters
Immigrant rights advocates and other supporters of the law counter that it closes loopholes that let local departments operate as de facto extensions of federal immigration enforcement and that it is designed to encourage crime reporting by residents who fear deportation. The Community Trust Act follows an earlier law this year that banned formal 287(g) agreements with ICE and led several counties to drop those arrangements, reporting by CBS Baltimore. Gov. Moore has said he backs the bill’s goals but has raised implementation concerns that his administration plans to address.
Legal claims and next steps
The complaint lays out federal preemption and Supremacy Clause theories, asserting that the state law conflicts with the federal Immigration and Nationality Act and could collide with federal harboring and obstruction statutes. It asks a federal judge to block the Community Trust Act while those constitutional and statutory issues are litigated, according to WTOP. The filing lists sheriffs from 17 counties, including Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Harford, and Wicomico, and names Gov. Moore and Attorney General Anthony Brown as defendants, the court papers show. Brown’s office declined to comment, according to the filings and local coverage.
What to expect
The sheriffs held a news conference in Annapolis and signaled they will push quickly for injunctive relief. The case, filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland as Gahler, et al. v. Moore, now heads into the court’s scheduling and briefing process, local outlets report. Observers say the dispute is likely to turn into a fast-moving fight over a preliminary injunction that could set the rules for how Maryland jails and police respond to ICE requests in the coming months, per The Daily Record.
