'How low can they go?' Maryland Democrat seeks to punish Trump-era ICE agents for doing their job

Democrats have made no secret of their contempt for the men and women of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who daily put their lives at risk to keep dangerous criminal noncitizens off American streets.

Evidently keen to go beyond just demonizing ICE agents, a Maryland Democrat has proposed legislation that would deny them future jobs in the crime-ridden state's enforcement agencies.

Adrian Boafo, a Democrat member of Maryland's House of Delegates who is currently running for Congress, proposed legislation earlier this month titled the "ICE Breaker Act of 2026," aimed at punishing "those who are motivated to support this Administration's immigration policies and principles by joining ICE."

'The ICE Breaker Act of 2026 is an unserious, frankly stupid bill.'

"Under Donald Trump, Steven Miller [sic] and Kristi Noem, ICE has ceased to function as a lawful and legitimate law enforcement agency," said Boafo. "Instead it operates as a lawless and unconstitutional paramilitary operation."

"Accordingly, this bill prevents individuals who chose to join ICE after January 20, 2025 in support of this administration's immigration agenda from serving in trusted law-enforcement positions within Maryland state government," added Boafo, who claimed elsewhere that ICE agents are neither trained nor qualified to serve as police.

The Department of Homeland Security recently indicated that ICE received over 220,000 applications and hired well over 10,000 new officers over the past year, doubling the number of personnel from 10,000 to roughly 22,000.

Boafo, the son of Ghanaian immigrants, will reportedly formally introduce the bill when the General Assembly reconvenes this week and has promised to introduce similar legislation in Congress if elected in the midterms.

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Adrian Boafo. Photo by Eric Lee/Washington Post/Getty Images

The proposed legislation has been condemned by various officials in the state.

Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler suggested Boafo's bill was "another poorly thought out piece of legislation and one motivated purely by political purposes."

Gahler told WBFF-TV that ICE agents "have a legitimate law enforcement mission to fulfill, and this delegate wants to punish them for taking an oath of office and doing the job they are constitutionally sworn to do."

"How sad can Maryland's legislature — how low can they go?" said Gahler. "The hate, the Trump derangement syndrome would be the basis."

Betsy Smith, spokeswoman for the National Police Association, underscored that contrary to Boafo's suggestion, ICE agents have to undergo strict scrutiny and relevant testing in order to join state law enforcement agencies.

"It sounds as though this politician wants people to believe that an ICE agent can just come into their town and tomorrow be a patrol officer," Smith told WBFF. "It's simply ridiculous."

Smith further stressed that it is "ridiculous to not hire ICE agents during a police understaffing crisis."

"This is a dumb idea," Republican Del. Kathy Szeliga told the Washington Post. "Law enforcement hiring should be based on the training, experience, and conduct of the candidate, not a partisan litmus test tied to some president you don't like."

Maryland House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R) cast doubt on the legality of the proposed legislation and suggested it was "not worthy of serious consideration."

Republican Del. Matt Morgan emphasized the discriminatory nature of the proposed hiring ban, writing, "What about ICE agents hired under Biden or Obama? The ICE Breaker Act of 2026 is an unserious, frankly stupid bill for the purpose of political pandering."

Despite its vilification by Boafo and other Maryland Democrats, ICE has worked overtime to make the state safer.

For instance, earlier this month, ICE arrested Oscar Miguel Argueta-Del Cid, an illegal alien from El Salvador who was convicted of sexually abusing a minor in Montgomery County, and last month ICE arrested Kevin Alexis Mendex-Ortiz, a criminal noncitizen from Honduras who caused a head-on collision in Prince George's County that sent an American citizen to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Blaze News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

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