The Department of Justice sued Maryland on Thursday in federal court over immigration enforcement, targeting the state’s Community Trust Act and sanctuary policies. Stanley Woodward said the lawsuit shows the Department will not tolerate what he called lawless action from blue state leaders.
Woodward said, "Federal immigration officers merely enforce the laws that our Nation’s elected representatives in Congress passed, reflecting the will of We the People". He also said, "Today’s suit proves that this Department will never stand for such lawless action from blue state leaders."
Maryland’s custody rules
The lawsuit says Maryland’s Community Trust Act, passed this year, blocks immigration arrests and deportations by limiting how local authorities handle ICE detainers, custody transfers and release notifications. The Department of Justice argues the law prevents Maryland correctional facilities from transferring individuals into federal custody without a valid judicial warrant, while immigration law allows arrests through administrative warrants.
That dispute is not abstract. On May 29, 2026, a warden of Worcester County Jail told a detention and deportation officer that the facility would no longer honor ICE detainers, release individuals to ICE custody, or notify ICE when individuals were in custody and ready for release. The Department of Justice said the facility denied a scheduled ICE pickup that morning and did not release the individual in question to ICE custody.
February 2025 DOJ sweep
The Maryland case is part of a broader federal effort that began in February 2025, when the U.S. attorney general ordered the DOJ’s civil division to identify state and local policies that provide sanctuary to illegal migrants. Since then, 20 other lawsuits have been brought, including against Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois and New York.
Most local law enforcement officers in Maryland agree with the federal government’s assessment of the Community Trust Act, according to the Department of Justice’s filing. The suit says the law jeopardizes public safety for all Americans and violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, putting the state statute directly at odds with federal immigration enforcement rules.
Wes Moore in New York
Wes Moore, Maryland’s governor, was shown attending a conversation about his new book Courage Will Save Us on June 9, 2026, in New York City. That appearance now sits beside a legal fight over how Maryland correctional facilities handle ICE detainers and release notices, with the federal court case set to decide whether the state law can stand as written.
The conflict now turns on a narrow legal question with broad operational effects: whether Maryland’s requirement for a valid judicial warrant controls inside its facilities, or whether the Department of Justice can force compliance with administrative warrants for immigration arrests. How that court reconciles the two is the next issue in the case.
