With less than two weeks remaining, the Maryland House Judiciary Committee is considering some major pieces of legislation related to immigration enforcement, youth judicial reform and the state expungement process.

The first bill on Tuesday’s hearing list was SB0323, also known as the Youth Charging Reform Act.

The legislation passed in the Senate with sparse bipartisan support from Republicans almost four weeks ago, but the House’s version of the bill never made it out of committee.

When both bills were filed, they would have reduced the list of crimes that automatically qualify a juvenile to be charged as an adult from 33 to 11.

If the bill becomes law, the crimes removed from the auto charge list would be left up to judicial discretion, meaning a judge could still determine a juvenile should be charged as an adult depending on the facts of the case.

It also struck a current provision that allows 14 and 15 year olds to be charged as adults if they commit a crime that would be punishable by life imprisonment, like murder or rape.

However, the Senate ultimately amended their version of the bill to only remove five crimes from the list of auto charge offenses, and it reinstated the auto charge statute for 14 and 15 year olds.

The five crimes that a judge would have discretion over would be sale or transfer of a firearm, use of a firearm in a drug crime, use of a firearm if convicted of a drug felony, first degree assault and wearing, carrying or transporting a handgun.

The Senate also added language to prohibit a child from being held in an adult correctional facility without a secure juvenile detention area.

Federal law already requires a child held in an adult facility to be separated by sight and sound from adults, and Maryland is the largest offender of this violation.

With the House version of the bill virtually dead, the chamber now has to decide if it wants to advance the Senate’s weakened version of the legislation.

On Tuesday, House Judiciary Committee Vice Chair Debra Davis (D-Charles County) asked Sen. Will Smith (D-Montgomery County) — the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee chair and primary sponsor of the Youth Charging Reform Act — if he would consider the House re-strengthening the bill and sending it back to the Senate.

“I would caution against changes being made, just given the tenuous nature of the coalition that we had to cobble together to get this bill over here in this form and fashion,” Smith told members of the committee.

“I think this reform is long overdue, and so I would say, I would like to see all auto charging curtailed – all 33 offenses curtailed,” he added. “I understand from a moral purity piece, but from a practical application in this setting, and our ability to get something like this done after 14 [or] 15 years of trying, I would caution heavily against jeopardizing the prospect of that progress.”

Smith said the Senate’s version of the bill stands to help 500 kids based on the juvenile charging rates of the five crimes that would be removed from the auto charge list.

At a press conference last week, Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus Del. N. Scott Phillips (D-Baltimore County), who also helped craft the original version of the Youth Charging Reform Act, expressed support for getting some version of the bill across the finish line.

“Am I comfortable with all of the changes? Probably not, to be quite honest with you, but we're going to work with the bill that we get,” Phillips said. “I do think that there will be a piece of legislation that passes that will address many of the young people today that are being charged as adults.”

At Tuesday’s committee meeting, Phillips expressed particular interest in taking armed carjacking and armed robbery off the auto charge list.

He pointed to data from the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) that shows in 2025, 147 youths were charged as adults for armed robbery — nine were actually found guilty and incarcerated — and for armed carjacking, five of the 62 juveniles charged as adults served more than 18 months in prison.

Phillips says he’s “not suggesting anything right now,” but hopes the legislature will take another look at these offenses in the future.

If the House does opt to make any changes to the legislation, it would have to go back to the Senate, and a conference committee could be needed to iron out the differences.

The House Judiciary Committee also heard SB0001, which would ban face masks coverings for all law enforcement operating in Maryland, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

The House companion version of the bill never received a committee vote, but Senate Bill 1 received final approval in early January.

The Senate version was amended to vary slightly from the House bill, requiring the adoption of a “model” of the ban instead of a “uniform policy” and making a violation a civil offense rather than a misdemeanor.

There would be circumstantial exceptions, like masks worn for health reasons or cold weather.

House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s Counties) has previously expressed support for the legislation.

And finally, the committee heard SB0483, also known as the Clean Slate Act of 2026.

The bill would automate the process for sealing certain arrest and conviction records once individuals become eligible, provided they remain crime-free for a set period and meet other requirements.

It is estimated that more than 400,000 Marylanders would have fully sealed records if the Clean Slate Act becomes law, meaning older offenses that were already eligible for expungement would no longer appear on commercial background checks, which can impact an individuals’ access to employment, housing and education.

The House version never made it out of committee, but the legislation received final approval in the Senate with bipartisan support earlier this month.