Brown, Elrich, and Moore have spent weeks and state resources on TPS. Today’s ruling raises the question none of them have answered: who asked Maryland residents?
By MDBayNews Staff
Two of Maryland’s most prominent Democratic officials issued statements today following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Mullin v. Doe and Trump v. Miot — and both statements share the same notable omission. A third official, Governor Wes Moore, had spent three weeks committing state resources to the same cause. As of publication, he had not issued a statement on today’s ruling.
The Court ruled 6-3 that Haitian and Syrian nationals are not entitled to orders postponing the termination of their Temporary Protected Status while litigation proceeds, clearing a path for the potential removal of more than 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. The ruling also limits judicial review in ways that could affect roughly 1.3 million TPS holders from 17 countries.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown called the decision “a blow to thousands of Marylanders” and said his office “stands with all Marylanders who call this State home.” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich went further, calling the ruling “shameful” and pledging that Montgomery County will not ask about immigration status when residents seek county services, with local laws keeping county resources out of federal deportation efforts.
Both statements are policy positions dressed as solidarity. Both raise the same question, neither official seems interested in answering: who represents Maryland taxpayers?
The word “temporary” was not an accident
The program at issue was created by Congress in 1990 and named — deliberately — Temporary Protected Status. Its design was to provide short-term humanitarian relief for people who cannot safely return to their home countries. Whether 16 years of continuous extensions for Haiti, or 14 for Syria, still qualifies as “temporary” is a legitimate policy question. You won’t find it engaged honestly in any of today’s statements.
Brown had been active in the litigation for months before today. His office joined a coalition of state attorneys general urging the Supreme Court to preserve the lower court blocks on TPS termination. The Court’s six-justice majority disagreed, finding that Congress built a judicial review bar directly into the TPS statute, placing designation and termination decisions explicitly in the executive branch’s hands. That’s not a rogue ruling — it’s a reading of what Congress actually wrote in 1990.
Elrich controls a budget, not just a microphone
Elrich’s statement is more operationally significant than Brown’s. Where Brown filed briefs and issued press releases, Elrich controls a county budget and a county workforce. His pledge that Montgomery County will not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement is not rhetoric — it is a governing decision about how county resources are allocated. He stated plainly that the county will not ask about immigration status and that local laws keep county resources out of federal deportation efforts.
Montgomery County taxpayers fund those resources. They have not been asked whether they agree.
Elrich’s statement contains one moment of unintentional candor. Buried near the end, he acknowledges what both he and Brown declined to lead with: that TPS was only ever meant to be temporary, and that the real fix has to come from Congress.
That’s accurate. It is also the argument Brown’s litigation strategy spent months trying to avoid. If the real fix requires congressional action, the proper venue was always Congress — not federal courts blocking an executive branch doing exactly what the statute permits.
Moore spent three weeks and $650,000 before the ruling came down
Governor Moore had not issued a statement on today’s ruling as of publication — but his actions in the three weeks prior tell their own story.
On June 2, Moore hosted a roundtable with the American Business Immigration Coalition and called on Congress to pass legislation protecting TPS holders and other long-term immigrants. On June 5, he signed an executive order creating a 12-month statewide immigrant rights protection task force. On June 12, his administration announced $650,000 in state grants to expand immigration legal services on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
All of that is now in sharper relief after a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that went the other direction. The spending decisions were made. The task force was stood up. The grants went out. Maryland taxpayers funded all of it, through an apparatus of state government that did not ask them first.
Moore’s June 2 roundtable included this observation from the CEO of the American Business Immigration Coalition: that it is well past time for Congress to pass bipartisan legislation protecting TPS holders. Moore did not disagree. Neither did Brown. Neither did Elrich — who said the same thing at the end of his statement today.
Three Maryland officials. Three separate acknowledgments that Congress is the correct venue. Three separate decisions to act as though the courts, the county budget, and the state treasury were the right substitutes in the meantime.
The math the statements don’t include
Elrich’s statement counts more than 33,000 Marylanders with TPS among the people he is speaking for today. Maryland has roughly 6.2 million residents. The officials issuing statements on their behalf — and committing state and county resources in their name — were elected by all of them.
Representing everyone who “calls this State home,” as Brown’s statement puts it, is a broader job than any of today’s statements suggest.
Sources: Supreme Court opinion in Mullin v. Doe and Trump v. Miot (June 25, 2026); statement from Attorney General Anthony Brown via @OAGMaryland on X; statement from Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, Montgomery County Government (montgomerycountymd.gov); Governor Moore roundtable remarks and press release, Office of the Governor (governor.maryland.gov, June 2, 2026); Governor Moore executive order establishing immigrant rights protection task force (governor.maryland.gov, June 5, 2026); Governor Moore’s Office of Immigration Affairs RAILS grant announcement (governor.maryland.gov, June 12, 2026); ACLU of Northern California case summary, Mullin v. Dahlia Doe; American Immigration Council TPS overview; Congressional Research Service TPS population data via multiple outlets.
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