Fighting for Maryland Values and Closing out Hispanic Heritage Month

Teresa Woorman
Oct 22
4 min read

Dear Neighbor,

It was so nice seeing so many of you at the No Kings rally at NIH this weekend. The energy, creativity, and sense of solidarity were incredible: people showing up, organizing, and supporting one another is exactly what this country is all about. And standing up for what’s right feels even more powerful when it comes with such thoughtful signs, clever costumes, and hopeful messages. If you’d like to see some of the images I shared on social media from that day, you can do so here!

I hope you had a great Hispanic Heritage Month, which ran from September 15 through October 15. While this is usually a joyful time, this year it was also filled with a lot of reflection on where our country is and where we’re headed.

In addition to my regular door-knocking and being out and about around District 16 over the last month, I have also been out in our Latino and immigrant communities. I’ve joined listening sessions across Montgomery County, celebrations with community organizations, health outreach events, and gatherings highlighting Latino leaders across Maryland. I also was honored to join an October 15 celebration at the Governor’s Mansion and would like to thank Governor Wes Moore and Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller for their warm message and welcoming reception.

Another highlight was the October 12 Maryland Legislative Latino Caucus’s Montgomery County Community Session at the Silver Spring Civic Center, which was co-hosted by CASA and Montgomery County Council President Kate Stewart. It was an honor to be a panelist, along with President Stewart, Caucus Chair Ashanti Martinez, and Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins for a Know Your Rights conversation about immigration and how state and local policies affect our neighbors. This event was part of a series of conversations the Latino Caucus is holding around the state, bringing together residents and advocates to talk about immigrant rights and community safety.

I also attended the Maryland Democratic Party’s October 6 Talk-Back and Listening Session in District 16 with State Party Chair and Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman, where attendees were polled about their top issues: affordability, health care, and immigration were the top three concerns. I even heard directly at that event from residents about their recent harrowing experiences being detained by ICE and ongoing worries with immigration enforcement in our community.

With all the news stories about ICE’s egregious actions in other parts of the country, and as one of the 26 percent of District 16 residents who was born in another country, I’ve heard from many of you, both naturalized citizens like me and native-born Americans, with concerns about what Maryland and Montgomery County are doing with respect to federal immigration enforcement in our community.

As one retired law enforcement officer recently commented in Maryland Matters, “The current federal approach bears little resemblance to traditional law enforcement. More than 75% of people booked into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in fiscal year 2025 had no criminal conviction other than an immigration or traffic-related offense, with less than 10% convicted of serious crimes like murder, assault, robbery or rape. This isn’t targeted enforcement of dangerous criminals; it’s indiscriminate sweeps of immigrant communities.”

I voted along with all of my Montgomery County House colleagues to pass HB 1222, the Maryland Values Act, relating to immigration enforcement. As passed by the House 98-38 largely along party lines on March 17, 2025, it would have ended 287(g) agreements in our state by July 1, 2025. Section 287(g) of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) authorizes ICE to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, delegating certain immigration enforcement functions to state and local officers. Eight Maryland counties currently have such agreements with ICE (several signed them since the session ended on April 7), but thankfully Montgomery County does not. Our state and local law enforcement agencies and the resources we provide to support them should be working for Maryland residents consistent with Maryland values, not doing delegated work for a federal government agency that allows masked unidentified ICE agents to snatch people off the streets and send them -- without due process -- to either detention or foreign countries (including countries where they’ve never lived). Some of those taken into ICE custody have been U.S. citizens, but they often get no opportunity to prove it (and may illegally not be allowed to communicate at all with their families or their attorneys). Montgomery County’s policy is not to assist federal immigration enforcement, but to share information with ICE as required by law about convicted criminals in county custody (who have gotten their due process).

The House-passed bill was amended in the Senate three weeks later on April 7 in the final hour of the 2025 session and came back to the House in the session’s final minutes. I was disappointed that the Senate-passed bill continued to permit these 287(g) agreements and came to the House with no time for a House-Senate conference, but I voted for the amended legislation, which also passed the House largely along party lines, because it still did a number of good things related to immigration enforcement at public schools, public libraries, and other “sensitive locations." Governor Moore signed it into law on May 20, and Attorney General Brown issued his guidance about implementation of the bill in July.

I expect the Maryland Values Act to be re-introduced in some form in the 2026 General Assembly session and I’ll work hard to convince my colleagues in the House and the Senate that 287(g) agreements should be banned in Maryland. I’m glad to live in a community that cares about all of our residents, and I will continue to work on these important immigration enforcement issues to assure that Maryland law and policy are consistent with Maryland values.

As always, it’s an honor to represent you in the Maryland House of Delegates. Please reach out if I can be of assistance to you.

Best,