(The Center Square) — Jails in Maryland and Washington, D.C. collectively declined hundreds of detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between October 2022 and February 2025, according to a report.
The Center for Immigration Studies obtained the data via a Freedom of Information Act request. It shows that Maryland declined 384 ICE detainers, while the District of Columbia declined 14.
An ICE detainer asks local law enforcement to hold someone in jail after their scheduled release so federal immigration agents can take custody. Nationally, more than 25,000 detainers were declined during the same period.
Both Maryland and D.C. have longstanding policies that limit cooperation with ICE.
Local officials and immigrant rights advocates say these policies are designed to protect due process and avoid constitutional violations. According to the Maryland Immigrant Rights Coalition, several counties—including Prince George’s, Montgomery and Baltimore City—limit cooperation with ICE by requiring judicial warrants or restricting detainers to serious or violent crimes.
Still, the report shows that Baltimore County Detention Center, Gaithersburg Police Department and Howard County Detention Center in Maryland, released “aliens with homicide convictions and charges” during the review period.
Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s director of policy studies, said these sanctuary policies undermine public safety due to misinformation or political reasons. “They should face consequences for putting the public at risk.”
In 2020, a federal judge in D.C. ruled that an ICE warrant for the “arrest of an alien” is not a true judicial warrant because it is issued by an ICE agent, not a judge.
The court concluded that U.S. Marshals did not have the legal authority to detain individuals on ICE’s behalf once a local judge ordered their release.
The White House also targeted Washington’s sanctuary policies. In a March executive order, President Donald Trump created the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, directing federal agencies to maximize immigration law enforcement in the district and monitor D.C.’s sanctuary city status.
