BALTIMORE (WBFF) — The General Assembly and Gov. Wes Moore didn’t let criticism and concern from police and prosecutors about two public safety related bills stop them from passing the legislation.
The concerns began early in the legislative session, when prosecutors from around the state warned against the Youth Charging Reform Act, a bill ending the automatic charging of some children as adults for certain assault, weapons and drug offenses.
“You’re literally shifting the way that we analyze the cases and decide, because we’re making that decision,” Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said during a previous interview with FOX45 News In Depth with Mikenzie Frost.
Others said the question was not one of resources, but whether children could be helped by the programming available within the Department of Juvenile Services.
“It’s not about money and time. It’s about where can these children be helped?” said Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Tara Jackson. “The community is looking at us to make sure to keep them safe. And automatically sending children to a system that doesn’t work now, that we know doesn’t work now, is not the answer. Fix the system first.”
Nonetheless, Gov. Wes Moore signed the Youth Charging Reform Act into law on May 26. Supporters of the legislation argue most of the cases that fall under the new law end up in the juvenile system anyway, so the cases should start there.
“It keeps cases in the right court from the start, which actually and by the data makes us safer and is better for those young people,” Senate President Bill Ferguson said during his remarks at the bill singing.
The governor’s signature drew sharp criticism from the Maryland State’s Attorneys’ Association. In a statement, the group said the state was “finally starting to see a slow trend to actual justice for victims and some actual programming for these young offenders.”
Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, who leads the organization, added, “One must beg to ask the Governor and members of this Maryland General Assembly, at what point will you begin to understand the reality that so many of your constituents continue to see day after day that violent juvenile crime continues to grow out of control because the Department of Juvenile Services is ill-equipped to handle these young, violent, repeat offenders,” Bates wrote in the statement.
Sending these violent offenders back to the juvenile system and giving them a timeout is not the answer to such egregiously violent crimes, Ivan Bates, president of the MSAA, continued in his statement.
“That is why we, the Elected State’s Attorneys in Maryland, sought to have this legislation put on hold for three years until DJS could get the necessary programming for these young offenders. Instead, our request was ignored, and the members of the General Assembly vilified us for it,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Community Trust Act drew sharp pushback – and a federal lawsuit trying to block it – from the majority of sheriffs in Maryland.
Seeking injunctive relief, opponents of the Community Trust Act argue the legislation “forces Plaintiffs into an impossible and constitutional position.” The legislation was passed by the General Assembly on the last day of session and further limits ICE cooperation in Maryland; it followed a formal ban on 287(g) agreements in the state, which was a bill passed and signed into law earlier this year.
“The Act prohibits Plaintiffs and their deputies and correctional staff from honoring federal immigration detainers, notifying federal authorities that a removable alien is in custody, transferring custody to [ICE], or providing information obtained in the course of official duties – unless a narrow ‘judicial warrant’ is presented,” the lawsuit states.
Sheriffs Jeff Gahler of Harford County, Jim DeWees from Carroll County, and Mike Lewis from Wicomico County were some of the sheriffs on hand for the announcement in Annapolis.
“We don’t want to be here today, but we’re here because this nonsense up here in Annapolis, Maryland, has to stop,” Lewis said. “They have overstepped their boundaries.”
“We’re no longer allowed to communicate with immigration officials, ICE. What about drug enforcement? Do we protect drug offenders and drug traffickers? And we pass legislation then to stop us or stop us from communicating with DEA?,” DeWees said. “When does it actually stop?”
Echoing the governor’s previous statement, Moore’s Senior Press Secretary Ammar Moussa told FOX45 News via statement that the state will continue to work with federal law enforcement “when it makes Marylanders safer, but we will not let untrained, unqualified, and unaccountable ICE agents deputize local law enforcement to do federal immigration work.”
“We respect the role sheriffs play in protecting their communities, and we recognize that there are implementation questions that will need to be worked through,” Moussa’s statement continued. “But the governor’s position has not changed: Maryland can support law enforcement, protect constitutional rights, and keep our communities safe at the same time.”
Political Analyst John Dedie said Gov. Moore will likely face an uphill battle with the public safety experts now that these laws will take effect.
“When I think about what the governor’s doing, in many ways, I think it plays a 2028 politics because when you’re out there campaigning for president, you could say, I supported these measures, but you can spin it to say, but people who oppose dealing with this thing that I support went to court to stop it,” Dedie said.
Dedie added that when many prosecutors and sheriffs oppose a proposal, “they may be more likely to be right than the governor.”
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