DOJ accuses Maryland of 'active and deliberate effort' to prevent deportations of illegal immigrants: lawsuit

By Fox News · Fox News

The Department of Justice sued Maryland over its sanctuary policies, accusing the state of engaging in an "active and deliberate effort" to obstruct federal immigration enforcement. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Maryland federal court, comes after the U.S. attorney general in February 2025 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. The DOJ's suit against Maryland argues that the state's Community Trust Act, passed this year, "jeopardizes the public safety for all Americans" by purposely thwarting immigration-related arrests and deportations . "Federal immigration officers merely enforce the laws that our Nation’s elected representatives in Congress passed, reflecting the will of We the People," Associate U.S. Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement. "Today’s suit proves that this Department will never stand for such lawless action from blue state leaders." EXCLUSIVE: DHS BLASTS SANCTUARY LEADERS AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF BAT ATTACK FREED FROM JAIL The lawsuit also said that Maryland's law violates the supremacy clause of the Constitution , which says state laws must be compliant with federal law. DOJ lawyers argued that the Community Trust Act has led to local authorities not cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other immigration officers. They pointed to an incident on May 29, 2026, when a warden of a Worcester County Jail told a detention and deportation officer that as a result of the Community Trust Act, his facility "would no longer honor ICE detainers, release individuals to ICE custody, or notify ICE when individuals are in custody and ready for release." "The facility denied a scheduled ICE pickup that morning and did not release the individual in question to ICE custody," DOJ lawyers wrote. DOJ ESCALATES BLUE-STATE ICE STANDOF…