DOJ sues Maryland over immigration sanctuary law

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the state of Maryland on Thursday over a new law the department alleges interferes with the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce immigration law.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court against the state and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown (D), seeks to block the enforcement of the Community Trust Act that went into effect in May after being passed by the Democratic super-majority in the state legislature.

The lawsuit alleges that the new law prevents local jails and state law enforcement from cooperating with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“The Act’s purpose and effect is to obstruct federal law enforcement and thwart the constitutional obligation of the President of the United States to take care that the immigration laws enacted by Congress are enforced,” DOJ lawyers wrote in the complaint.

The DOJ is asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional and permanently block Maryland from enforcing it.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward accused Maryland and Brown of shielding undocumented immigrants from federal authorities, as well as violating the Constitution’s supremacy clause.

“When sanctuary jurisdictions enact laws to shield illegal aliens from federal law enforcement, it is not merely federal law that is violated, but the voices of everyday American voters silenced,” Woodward said in a statement.

Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said the DOJ will continue to challenge so-called “sanctuary” policies that the department deems to be impeding federal immigration enforcement.

In a statement to The Washington Post, a spokesperson for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said the state “will work with the federal government when that coordination makes our people safer.”

“While Trump’s ICE has ripped mothers out of cars and detained five-year-olds, Maryland’s law allows our law enforcement to continue working with federal officers to get violent offenders off our streets, remain focused on the work that has helped drive historic reductions in violent crime, and protect fundamental civil rights,” said Moore spokesperson Rhyan Lake.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of at least two dozen legal challenges brought by the Trump administration against Democratic-led states resisting President Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The DOJ’s Civil Division was instructed to identify state and local laws that they believe impede said operations, including in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois and New York, according to the department.