WATCH: Maryland ICE Director Says Leftist Attorney General Is Preventing Cooperation Between ICE and Local Law Enforcement – “Is Terrible for Public Safety”

Key provisions of the guidance include, but are not limited to, the following. Law enforcement officers:

Cannot inquire about immigration status during routine police work unless relevant to a criminal investigation;
Must not extend detentions to investigate immigration status;
May share citizenship/immigration status with federal officials but are not required to do so;
Cannot share personal information (names, addresses) with federal immigration authorities without a judicial warrant;
Risk civil liability if they hold individuals on immigration detainers without probable cause; and

ICE Field Office Director Matthew Elliston responded to the Attorney General in an interview, saying, “I’m trying to arrest MS-13 members, and I’m trying to reach out to a local county gang unit. So, your recommendation is that we don’t work with a county gang unit to try to make the area safer? That seems like bad public policy and terrible for public safety.”

P.M. Smith, an attorney and the pastor at Baltimore’s Huber Memorial Church, said, “This is a matter of authority, the federal versus the state. The Constitution gives the Feds supremacy over the state.” He continued, “Fact number one: Only the feds can regulate immigration; that looks like admission, exclusion, deportation, and prosecution. Number two: If local government interferes, hinders, or puts some kind of obstacle in terms of enforcing it, I think that the state will lose. The feds will win.”

Smith further related federal enforcement actions against illegal aliens to the civil rights movement and federal action required to desegregate schools, adding, “the feds are going to prevail” whether or not there are court proceedings over this dispute.

He then criticized sanctuary state and city leaders. “Now the states want to be sanctuary cities. That means we’ll pay for you if you’re here. Why are you paying for them, and you’re not paying for my kids? Why are you calling their kids dreamers? You don’t call my kids dreamers,” Smith commented.

Via Fox Baltimore:

Still, ICE deportation efforts are underway, targeting violent criminal illegal aliens, including murderers and child sex predators. Ellison recently spoke about the success of ICE Maryland’s targeted enforcement operations.

Via Associated Press:

Despite Democrats’ efforts to protect criminal illegal aliens, ICE has reportedly arrested at least 5,537 people in Baltimore, Maryland, since January 23.

As The Gateway Pundit recently reported, Democrats in Illinois are also trying to prevent ICE officials from enforcing immigration law. The Chicago Mayor and Illinois Governor, both Democrats, are reportedly protecting illegal aliens who are in local jails and prisons and even trying to allow illegal aliens to change their names to avoid detection by ICE. They would rather house these criminal aliens in jail at the expense of taxpayers and let them out into the street to terrorize law-abiding citizens than admit that they don’t belong in our country.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to The Gateway Pundit’s question on Friday about leftist state officials’ attempts to prevent ICE from enforcing immigration law.

Leavitt slammed the corrupt Democrats, saying, “They would be very wise to comply with this administration because this administration is hell-bent on enforcing our nation’s immigration laws, and this administration will continue to arrest, detain, and deport illegal migrant criminals.” She further told us, “It sounds like they are breaking the law.”

WATCH: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Announces New Arrests of Criminal Illegal Aliens and Sex Offenders, Slams Leftist Sanctuary State and City Leaders for Protecting Violent Illegal Aliens