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Maryland sheriffs should not be handcuffed by reckless sanctuary politics

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 05:00:03 -0400

Last week, my organization, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of 17 of Maryland’s 24 sheriffs challenging the state’s newly enacted "Community Trust Act."

This so-called "trust" legislation is nothing less than a dangerous sanctuary mandate that deliberately obstructs cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. We decided to represent these sheriffs because they are on the front lines of public safety, sworn to uphold both the state and federal constitutions, yet they have now been placed in an impossible constitutional bind by Annapolis politicians.

These 17 plaintiffs represent 70 percent of Maryland’s county sheriffs. They came to us not seeking political gain but relief from a law that handcuffs their ability to protect their communities. As executive director and general counsel of FAIR, an organization dedicated to immigration policies that serve America’s national interest, I could not stand by while dedicated officers are ordered to release criminal illegal aliens back into neighborhoods where they pose ongoing threats.

The ironically named "Community Trust Act" prohibits or severely restricts local correctional facilities from honoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers, sharing critical information with federal authorities, or detaining removable criminal aliens beyond their scheduled release — except in the narrowest of circumstances. This is not "community trust." The law demands judicial warrants for routine cooperation that federal law already authorizes. It is state-mandated obstruction that turns Maryland into what the sheriffs rightly call an "ultra-sanctuary" state.

MARYLAND LAWMAKERS CLOSER TO PASSING ROADBLOCK TO ICE DEPORTATION EFFORT

I decided to take this case because the human cost of sanctuary policies is no longer abstract; it is measured in the shattered lives of American families. At our press conference, we stood alongside Angel parents Patty Morin, Jim Walden and Tammy Nobles. Patty’s daughter Rachel was brutally raped, beaten, and murdered in 2023, and her body was stuffed into a drainpipe by an illegal alien who had evaded removal thanks in part to lax enforcement and sanctuary protections. Lance Cpl. James (Jimmie) Walden III was killed in 2017 when the motorcycle he was riding was struck by a speeding Mexican national. Tammy lost her daughter Kayla to similar preventable violence. These tragedies were not inevitable. They resulted from policies that prioritize illegal aliens over law-abiding citizens.

Sanctuary laws have failed repeatedly across the country. From New York to California to Chicago, jurisdictions that limit cooperation with ICE have seen surges in crimes committed by individuals who should have been deported long ago. Repeat offenders — convicted of assault, drug trafficking, sexual abuse, and homicide — are released back into communities because local police are prohibited from notifying or assisting what should be federal partners. The data is clear: When cooperation ends, lawlessness increases. Innocent Americans pay with their lives. Maryland is now doubling down on this failed experiment despite the evidence and despite the pleas of its own sheriffs.

This lawsuit is about more than Maryland. It is important for all Americans to oppose sanctuary laws because immigration enforcement is a national responsibility, not a local option. The Constitution’s Supremacy Clause ensures that federal law prevails in areas of national authority like immigration. States cannot nullify federal statutes or commandeer local officers to undermine them. When one state creates safe havens for criminal aliens, it affects every American through increased crime, strained resources, higher taxes, and an eroded rule of law. Criminals cross state lines, and we cannot allow a patchwork of resistance that renders federal immigration policy meaningless.

ANGEL PARENTS SLAM ILLINOIS SANCTUARY LAWS AFTER 'PREVENTABLE' TRAGEDY IN STUDENT'S DEATH

Our sheriffs are not asking for new powers. They simply want to do their jobs without fear of state punishment for complying with federal law. The act forces them to choose between violating their oaths or facing state penalties. By interfering, Maryland is not only endangering its residents but inviting federal preemption challenges.

FAIR has long documented the failures of sanctuary policies. Law-abiding, legal immigrants and citizens alike suffer when criminals are shielded. Police cannot effectively combat gangs, drugs, or human trafficking without full access to immigration databases and detainer authority. The notion that restricting cooperation somehow makes communities safer defies both logic and experience.

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Gov. Wes Moore allowed the bill to become law without his signature, citing implementation concerns yet refusing to veto it. Sheriffs and citizens deserve better than half-measures and virtue signaling. Public safety demands full enforcement of immigration laws, secure borders, and cooperation at every level of government.

This fight transcends partisan lines. It is about whether we remain a nation of laws or descend into selective enforcement that favors lawbreakers. FAIR stands shoulder-to-shoulder with these Maryland sheriffs because their battle is America’s battle. We will pursue every legal avenue to strike down this dangerous law and restore the ability of law enforcement to keep criminal illegal aliens off our streets.

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Americans everywhere should watch Maryland closely. If sanctuary ideology prevails here, it will spread. The stakes are innocent lives — daughters, sons, neighbors — who deserve protection, not political experiments.

We filed this suit to defend the rule of law, honor the lives of innocent victims like Rachel, Jimmie and Kayla, and ensure that sheriffs can fulfill their sacred duty. For Maryland and for the nation, this reckless policy must be stopped.

Dale Wilcox: Stop abusing visa system — Corporate America must hire homegrown talent

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 10:42:15 -0400

Education has long been one of the building blocks to achieving the American Dream. Go to college, get a degree and you’ll be on your way to a successful career and a prosperous life.

Today that time-tested maxim is faltering, thanks in part to Corporate America’s addiction to cheap foreign labor and its love for unfettered immigration.

While an increasing number of people are seeing liberal arts disciplines as a charade, there has been reassurance that the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields are rock-solid. Greek poetry and Nietzsche may be the stuff of Starbuck’s baristas, but the country will always need IT professionals and lab researchers, right?

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Not exactly.

At various times in America’s rise as an enduring global economic superpower, our industries have needed specialists who were not available among our population. For that reason, the federal government created programs like the H-1B visa, which allows employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.

Sadly, profit has subsumed principle. Foreign workers continue to be hired for American jobs under H-1B, not because of a dearth of skilled native workers, but because foreign workers can be hired at often a fraction of the cost of their U.S. counterparts.

This pattern has continued even through the mass unemployment of the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently put out a report on the H-1B program. It found that there are 583,420 H-1B skilled workers in the country at a time when tens of millions of Americans are out of work. Are we to believe that no skilled workers are among that pool of job seekers?

This is fundamentally wrong during better times. Today it is a gross injustice.

Corporations that want to enjoy low U.S. corporate taxes and have access to the American market show utter contempt for American workers. This can be seen in numerous accounts of American workers who were asked to train foreign workers and then received pink slips when the trainees turned out to be their replacements.

To be sure, this obsession with foreign labor is not about a lack of homegrown talent. As of 2014 there were more than five million native-born Americans with STEM undergraduate degrees, but they were working in non-STEM occupations. Why is that? Maybe because many of them have been squeezed out of the career they trained for as employers prefer foreign labor that can be paid substandard wages. That is not capitalism; it’s exploitation and using yet another government program as a form of corporate welfare.

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These maneuvers may be smart for a company’s balance sheet, but they are decidedly bad for America and its citizens. At a time when many corporations are extremely image-conscious and virtue signal their political correctness, many have no shame about proclaiming their unquenchable thirst for cheap labor at the expense of Americans.

Even at the height of the pandemic-related economic fears, 324 of America’s largest employers sent a letter to President Trump, warning that any attempt by him to limit their access to cheap foreign labor would likely result in more financial hardship. The group, which includes Silicon Valley behemoths like Amazon and Facebook, has plenty of fans on Capitol Hill. Thanks to well-funded lobbying efforts, they have won allies from both parties in Congress to defend the never-ending need for more cheap foreign labor.

Who advocates for our sons and daughters who played by the rules, worked hard and earned a degree in a growing field? They are mere collateral damage to the corporate giants and the politicians who carry their water in exchange for campaign funding.

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Some corporations that buy Super Bowl commercials and wrap themselves in American values are also harming American workers by leveraging foreign labor programs to increase profitability. Americans need to know who these companies are and make consumer decisions accordingly.

Organizations like mine, the Immigration Reform Law Institute, defend the interests of the American worker at a time when powerful industries are lined up against them. President Trump and a few brave souls in Congress have been tireless defenders of American workers on immigration issues. We, the American people, need to continue to remind them that programs like H-1B have strayed far from their original intent and are harming the future of our children and our nation.

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Dale Wilcox: Trump's coronavirus immigration halt is legal and necessary

Tue, 21 Apr 2020 20:38:56 -0400

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Critics of President Trump have made endless arguments that he has not acted quickly and boldly enough to combat the coronavirus pandemic. They are now getting a dose of the old adage, “be careful what you wish for, it just might come true.”

In response to the widespread unemployment caused by the virus, the president said Tuesday that he would sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States for at least 60 days. If the goal is to get Americans back to work, this is one of the best moves the president could make.

When America was near full employment just a few months ago, one could at least make a case for a steady immigration flow. If there are more jobs than workers, then more workers are needed. That is no longer the case. There are about 22 million American citizens in desperate need of steady work. They need to be our first priority right now.

TRUMP SAYS CORONAVIRUS IMMIGRATION SUSPENSION WILL LAST 60 DAY

We often hear that Washington doesn’t look out for the little guy, that it’s all about big business and billionaires. This executive order is all about helping the struggling everyman, and yet the avalanche of criticism has already begun. Critics say it is racist, xenophobic and illegal. All of those accusations are false.

The racism charge was used when the president issued his travel ban targeting specific countries. He’s focusing on Muslim countries with people of color, they argued. Ignored was the fact that those countries either were long ago identified as state sponsors of terrorism or could not provide U.S. immigration authorities with reliable documents to vet its citizens to protect our national security.

The president’s authority to institute such a ban was vindicated by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. Hawaii. This new suspension affects foreign nationals of every color and faith, so any charge of racism is patently absurd.

Opposition to this suspension will be more than just rhetoric. The anti-borders industry will attack with a flurry of lawsuits meant to serve as a roadblock. The fact is that significant legal, legislative and historical precedent supports the president.

In addition to the ruling in Trump v. Hawaii, section 1182(f) of Title 8 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows the president to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or non-immigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem appropriate.”

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When Congress debated the INA in 1952, Rep. Francis Walters, D-Pa., one of the bill’s sponsors, was prescient when he said, “[In a time of foreign pandemic], people might conceivably in large numbers come to the United States and bring all sorts of communicable diseases with them. More than that, suppose we have a period of great unemployment? In the judgment of the committee, it is advisable at such times to permit the president to say that for a certain time we are not going to aggravate that situation.”

The congressman may as well have been speaking about our current predicament. When America faced similar hyper-unemployment during the Great Depression, the federal government drastically reduced legal immigration levels by almost 90 percent.

Just as important, there is significant popular support for the president’s action. A recent Harvard-Harris poll found that 83 percent of Americans favor ending all immigration from Mexico during the coronavirus pandemic.

These are not people who fear others who do not look like them. They are fearful that they will not be able to provide for their families, and they rightfully expect their government to protect our citizens first.

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This crisis has caused us to ask some very fundamental questions about the relationship between government and the people. It also shines a bright light on the disconnect between ordinary citizens and many in the world of politics.

The first responsibility of the American government must be the well-being of American citizens. President Trump should be lauded, not criticized, for accepting that responsibility when so many in Washington do not.