ACLU Maryland Statement on Wicomico County 287(g) Agreement Hold

Wicomico County, MD – Something incredible happened in the rural town of Salisbury on the Eastern Shore this month. In response to months of public opposition, the Wicomico County Executive and Sheriff abandoned their increasingly unpopular proposal to enter a 287(g) agreement with ICE. Wicomico held the Shore!

On July 25, 2025, the Sheriff announced his intention to enter into a 287(g) agreement, which would deputize his officers as ICE agents in the local jail and divert local resources to Trump’s mass deportations. Local elected officials, including the Mayor, County Council President, County Executive and even their US Congressman, immediately rallied to his side in full support.

Facing incredible odds, a multi-racial coalition led by those most directly impacted, decided to organize, not agonize. With a group of local civil rights activists, immigrant community leaders, and allied concerned citizens, and the partnership of CLINIC, we co-hosted a community townhall on our constitutional rights, and on the impacts of local partnership agreements with ICE. After educating themselves about 287(g), they then began hosting teach-ins to mobilize their neighbors, members of local churches, and farmworkers. Home to the Purdue Chicken headquarters and the Shore’s industrial farms, Salisbury relies on the labor of Haitian and Central American workers who have brought so much to the economic and social life of the community for decades. Even with local political leaders in lockstep with the Sheriff’s push to collaborate with ICE, the Coalition knew they could win if they activated everyday community members to defend their rights and demand dignity.

Coalition members began showing up to County Council meetings to speak against 287(g) in public comment. At first, mostly allies and longtime community leaders came forward. And then, at one September meeting, hundreds of people, most of whom were Haitian farm and chicken plant workers, rallied outside the council building and packed the council chambers and hallways. Dozens spoke about the impact of living under Trump’s terror campaign against immigrants. In the weeks following, hundreds more community members posted on social media, talked to neighbors, and wrote letters and made phone calls to Council members and the County Executive.

In response, Council members who otherwise expressed full support for Trump’s immigration policies, began to echo the community’s concerns – particularly around potential financial costs and legal risks to the county. One councilmember asked why the County would add job duties to Correctional Officers when the jail is short 30 employees. Another expressed concerns about exposing the County to legal liability by complying with ICE’s requests to hold individuals in jail past their scheduled release. In his January 2025 Guidance, the Attorney General of Maryland explicitly warned LEAs and detention officials of the legal risk of complying with these ICE detainers.

Ultimately, the proposal failed because it became deeply unpopular in the community and then among Council members. Over time, the coalition and countless community members exposed it as a political stunt to scapegoat immigrants, not a public safety program to protect residents. 287(g) would have opened the door to racial profiling, targeted people who committed no serious crimes, and torn families apart, all while wasting local tax dollars that Wicomico County doesn't have.

Across the country, more than three-quarters of the people deported under 287(g) have no criminal convictions. This program doesn’t make communities safer. Instead, it diverts scarce local resources away from genuine public safety needs, undermines trust between the police and residents, making residents afraid to report crime and cooperate in police investigations.

ICE is already causing incredible harm every day, even without 287(g). And ICE continues to do enforcement on the Lower Shore, with masked agents abducting our neighbors. Across Maryland, every day more than ten families are separated, and children are left without parents. But by mobilizing overwhelming public opposition, this community prevented their leaders from using local resources to do ICE’s dirty work. Wicomico County’s decision to reverse course comes on the heels of several rural towns across the US withdrawing from 287(g), citing staff shortages and public safety concerns.

We want to thank the community leaders and organizations that stood up, spoke out, and led this effort, including the NAACP Wicomico County 7028B, Crabs on the Shore, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), Haitian Bridge Alliance, CATA – The Farmworker Support Committee, CASA, Rebirth, Haitian Development Center of Delmarva (HDCD), Institute for Justice and Democracy for Haiti, Komite Ayiti and Kreyol à la Français LA, along with hundreds of members of the local Haitian and Central American communities.

At the end of the Council meeting held on November 4, the County Executive said she would revisit the 287(g) proposal in the Spring after the Maryland General Assembly’s legislative Session. Let’s make sure that legislators in Annapolis hear our voices loud and clear that we, from rural towns on the Eastern Shore to neighborhoods in Baltimore, value our immigrant neighbors and refuse to aid and abet Trump’s attacks on immigrants. As Wicomico NAACP President Monica Brooks said at CASA’s 11/4 press conference: “If we can do this in Wicomico on the Eastern Shore, any community can stop this ICE collaboration. We can win this by just coming together and holding people accountable.” As we look to take this fight to the Maryland General Assembly this coming session let’s come together to defend due process, public safety and one another, so that come next Spring, 287(g) will be outlawed once and for all in Maryland.