ANNAPOLIS–U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Maryland) said Tuesday he expects President-elect Donald Trump will withhold federal dollars from those who don’t comply with mass deportation and other policies — potentially even in Harris’ home state of Maryland.
“After having discussions with incoming members of the Trump administration, they’re not going to look favorably upon jurisdictions that, with one hand, ask for federal dollars and, with the other hand, pass it out to illegal immigrants, including protecting them from the reach of federal law, including deportation law,” Harris said.
“The fact of the matter is that, when the jurisdiction of Maryland says we’re not going to cooperate with deportation policies, why, with the other hand, are they reaching out for federal benefits?” Harris said.
“I think what you’re going to see, as part of our efforts to control federal spending,” Harris went on, is that “one of the first things we’re going to do is go to those jurisdictions that don’t cooperate with the federal government and attempt to achieve savings there.”
Harris’ comments came during a press conference in Annapolis to debut the Maryland House of Delegates’ Freedom Caucus, a bloc of half a dozen conservative state delegates modeled after the U.S. House caucus of the same name. Harris, whose district includes Maryland’s Eastern Shore, was reelected chair of the House Freedom Caucus last month and is a Trump-friendly member of the House Appropriations Committee.
His prediction on Tuesday echoes similar signals from a handful of Trump’s current and former advisers, including Steve Bannon and Newt Gingrich, about suspension of federal funding for jurisdictions that plan not to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. Harris also made similar comments to WBFF-TV Baltimore last week.
Many Democratic officials across the country have expressed concern about mass deportation in their states. But days before Trump is due to be sworn in, most are currently emphasizing their plans to find ways to cooperate with the new president.
Lawmakers in the state’s new Freedom Caucus suggested that Harris’ ties to the Trump administration could result in the use of federal funding as leverage to boost other state-level priorities. This could potentially give the small group an outsize voice in the General Assembly.
Del. Matt Morgan, a Republican who represents St. Mary’s County, is chair of the Maryland General Assembly’s Freedom Caucus. At the press conference, he rattled off a list of Republican priorities he hopes will receive a boost from the incoming administration. This would include rolling back some of the General Assembly’s recent criminal justice reform efforts, he said.
He also expressed optimism that the Trump administration could shut down the construction of light rail projects that Republicans oppose.
Mass transit projects are draining the transportation trust fund, Morgan said, and “right now they’re canceling local projects all across the state for roads and bridges, and overwhelmingly, the people that pay into that fund are motorists.”
“We believe there’s been a void in conservative leadership in this state for quite some time,” Morgan said, “and we’re going to fill that void.”
The group is small, said Del. Ryan Nawrocki, a Republican from Baltimore County and caucus spokesperson, but that’s how the Freedom Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives got its start.
“You start out with a core group of people that are committed to an ideal,” said Nawrocki, “and you demonstrate success, and that’s how you grow any group.”
Robert Ehrlich, the former Republican governor, also appeared at Monday’s press conference, speaking to the assembled crowd alongside members of the group.
“In difficult times, people are challenged, and that means leaders emerge,” Ehrlich said, as he stood at the microphone before the news cameras. “Folks behind me are clearly leaders that are emerging in Maryland today.”
The new caucus’s model is to “equip conservatives to win on issues across the country,” according to Rachel Ullmann, communications and community outreach director for the legislature’s District 7 delegates.
“We stand firmly with the National Network’s policy of ‘fighting federal overreach and standing firm against those in both parties who prioritize seizing political power over representing constituents,'” she wrote in an email to Capital News Service.
Maryland’s Freedom Caucus has not yet sought formal recognition from their party’s House and Senate chamber leaders, Nawrocki told reporters.
“There’s a possibility that we might do so,” Nawrocki said. House Minority Leader Del. Jason Buckel, a Republican representing Allegany County, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.