--- title: Martin O'Malley's Nasty Break With White House On Immigration description: Policy differences over immigration between the Maryland's governor and the Obama Administration leads to an unusually nasty battle in the press. canonical: https://time.com/2992802/martin-omalley-white-house-immigration/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-16T18:41:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:11:04.898Z article:section: Politics og:title: Martin O'Malley's Nasty Break With White House On Immigration og:description: Policy differences over immigration between the Maryland's governor and the Obama Administration leads to an unusually nasty battle in the press. og:url: https://time.com/2992802/martin-omalley-white-house-immigration/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8ee4fa611b86670/6986897313c79fa4af1917ba/maryland-governor-martin-omalley.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley speaks with reporters in his office inside the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Md., on April 7, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Martin O'Malley's Nasty Break With White House On Immigration twitter:description: Policy differences over immigration between the Maryland's governor and the Obama Administration leads to an unusually nasty battle in the press. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8ee4fa611b86670/6986897313c79fa4af1917ba/maryland-governor-martin-omalley.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Leak Hits Democratic Governor After Immigration Comments > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 16, 2014 6:41 PM UTC  Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley speaks with reporters in his office inside the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Md., on April 7, 2014. Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley speaks with reporters in his office inside the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Md., on April 7, 2014. Patrick Semansky—AP by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 16, 2014 6:41 PM UTC In 2012, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was ubiquitous on the campaign trail for President Barack Obama’s re-elect, appearing regularly on cable TV and in spin rooms to lob attacks on behalf of the president. He was the only governor on Obama’s National Finance Committee. He and his Celtic rock band even played the White House on St. Patrick’s Day. But all of that goodwill came tumbling down Friday after O’Malley, who is positioning himself for a White House bid in 2016, whacked the White House’s handling of the surge of unaccompanied minors across the nation’s southern border. “It is contrary to everything we stand for to try to summarily send children back to death,” O’Malley [told](http://time.com/2978026/martin-omalley-minors-immigration/) reporters at the National Governors Association, breaking with the president who has said that most of the migrants will be returned to their home countries. The statement drew a private complaint from Domestic Policy Director Cecilia Muñoz in the form of a phone call. But that phone call didn’t stay private, with Muñoz’s frustrations relayed to the press on Tuesday, as well as O’Malley’s request on the call to keep the children out of a proposed detention facility in Westminster, Md. The leak—which Democratic operatives pinned on the White House and which O’Malley pinned on Muñoz personally in a [conversation](http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/omalley-obama-administration-still-sparring-over-immigration-policies/2014/07/16/5d30e622-0c9a-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23%5Fstory.html?hpid=z4) with the Washington _Post_—suggested that the governor was being a hypocrite, gaining points with the Democratic base for calling more humane treatment for the children while declining to house them in his state. “He privately said ‘please don’t send these kids to western Maryland,'” the “Democratic source” behind the leaked call told CNN. But O’Malley and his aides offer a sharply different take on what transpired. “What I said was that would not be the most inviting site in Maryland. There are already hundreds of kids already located throughout Maryland,” O’Malley told [CNN](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/16/in-interview-with-cnn-omalley-defends-call-with-white-house-on-immigrant-kids/) Wednesday morning. Days after the call, the proposed facility was sprayed with misspelled [graffiti](http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maryland-state-police-investigate-no-illeagles-here-graffiti-as-a-hate-crime/2014/07/15/ec3b5c86-0c26-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23%5Fstory.html), saying “No illeagels here. No undocumented Democrats.” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to discuss the source of the leaked details of the phone call. “From the podium here, I’m not going to be in a position to share the details of a private conversation between a senior White House official and a prominent governor of an important state,” he said, adding that the relationship between the White House and O’Malley was “as strong as ever.” A senior O’Malley administration official said the state is working with the federal government on a number of Maryland sites to house the detainee children. On Monday, O’Malley’s administration began the process to speed licensing for future Department of Health and Human Services facilities in the state. “His focus continues to be on trying to be a constructive force in resolving this humanitarian crisis at the border and making sure that these children are cared for while they await due process,” the official said. The sharp White House response and the controversy over the Maryland facility masks the real controversy at play. The real difference between the O’Malley and the White House is not whether the children should be housed in Maryland, but how the illegal immigrants should be treated in the first place. “The better course here is to place as many kids with families and relatives as we possibly can or use the available foster system,” O’Malley said Friday, saying they should be held in the “least restrictive setting,” rather than the current facilities which he compared to “kennels.” The White House, on the other hand, is seeking a legal change that will allow them to more quickly deport those children that do not present humanitarian claims, without ever placing with families in the United States. It is that law-and-order approach that has the White House on defense from many in its own party. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2992802/martin-omalley-white-house-immigration/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2992802/martin-omalley-white-house-immigration/"},"headline":"White House Leak Hits Democratic Governor After Immigration Comments","datePublished":"2014-07-16T18:41:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:11:04.898Z","description":"Policy differences over immigration between the Maryland's governor and the Obama Administration leads to an unusually nasty battle in the press.","url":"https://time.com/2992802/martin-omalley-white-house-immigration/","keywords":["Immigration","Barack Obama","White House","2016 elections","Martin O'malley"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8ee4fa611b86670/6986897313c79fa4af1917ba/maryland-governor-martin-omalley.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8ee4fa611b86670/6986897313c79fa4af1917ba/maryland-governor-martin-omalley.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley speaks with reporters in his office inside the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Md., on April 7, 2014.","caption":"Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley speaks with reporters in his office inside the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Md., on April 7, 2014.","creditText":"Patrick Semansky—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2992802/martin-omalley-white-house-immigration/","name":"White House Leak Hits Democratic Governor After Immigration Comments"}}]}] ```