Cecilia Ley

Good morning.

The Trump administration has ramped up using local police to carry out immigration enforcement, but now some states are pushing back.

After new Epstein Files revelations, the Los Angeles mayor is calling for the Olympics chairman to resign.

The LA Times explains why.

And the Chicago Sun-Times reflects on the legacy of Jesse Jackson, who has died at the age of 84.

It's Wednesday, February 18th.

I'm Cecilia Ley, and this is Apple News Today.

Yesterday, Maryland became the latest state to push against President Trump's immigration crackdown by prohibiting enforcement agreements, partnerships that allow local law enforcement officers to carry out federal immigration duties.

The state follows similar moves in other Democratic-led states like Virginia, New Mexico, and Maine.

Here's a Democratic governor, Wes Moore.

The law comes as NPR reports that partnerships between local police and ICE have skyrocketed this past year under powers derived from a program with a wonky title, 287G.

Jacqueline Diaz, a correspondent with NPR, told us how it works.

The program itself is not new.

In fact, it was President Bill Clinton who signed it into law back in 1996.

In Maryland, for example, until yesterday, the county jail has for a long time asked inmates whether they were in the country illegally and then passed the information to a federal authority.

But there's been a clear change in how these agreements are being used in Trump's second term.

NPR reports that there were just 45 of these agreements in place back in 2019.

As of this week, ICE says that there are nearly 1,500 active agreements.

It varies massively across the country.

Red states like Texas and Florida have hundreds in place.