More than 1,000 local and state police departments have entered into 287(g) partnerships to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security in arresting illegal immigrants nationwide, according to the Trump administration.
The DHS announced on Wednesday afternoon that 1,001 nonfederal police agencies across 40 states have entered into agreements to help the White House crack down on illegal immigrants, particularly criminals, who are residing in the United States.
The uptick in partnerships has increased by 641% since President Donald Trump took office in January, with 135 agreements.
The massive growth in local and state partnerships with the federal government comes amid a hiring surge at ICE as the Trump administration seeks to ratchet up its mass deportation operation.
“ICE is not only supercharging our hiring, we are also multiplying partnerships with state and local law enforcement to remove the worst of the worst, including murderers, gang members, rapists, terrorists, and pedophiles from our country,” ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said in a statement.
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to include Section 287(g), which gives ICE the authority to delegate specific immigration officer duties to state and local police. Counties and states can opt in at their discretion.
The agreements were popular during former President George W. Bush’s administration. However, they were targeted by the Obama administration. When Trump took office in 2017, 35 agreements were in place, according to the America First Policy Institute, an organization created to support Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Trump ramped up the program in his first term to 150 agreements. Former President Joe Biden promised as a candidate to do away with the 287(g) program, but was unable to do so.
When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order requiring ICE to authorize state and local police to assist federal immigration authorities with the enforcement of immigration laws to the maximum extent possible.
States and cities can choose to turn over illegal immigrants in jail to ICE, assist ICE with arrests in the community, and team up on task forces. States such as Florida have been at the forefront of the effort to get police and local officers deputized to help ICE.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has encouraged local and state law enforcement to get deputized so they can pass along suspected illegal immigrants encountered at traffic stops to federal authorities.
Since the state deputized a portion of the Florida Highway Patrol to help out in March, state troopers have encountered roughly 3,600 illegal immigrants at traffic stops and turned them over to federal authorities, a state official told the Washington Examiner this week.
The state encounters, in addition to what local police are doing, add to the total number of people that ICE has taken off the street for deportation.
Some have criticized the use of local and state police for federal work. The American Immigration Council, an organization in Washington, D.C., that advocates immigrants regardless of legal status, said in a recent report that two Justice Department investigations found a “pattern and practice of constitutional violations” against Latinos.
“There are many documented problems with 287(g) agreements. They are an expensive use of taxpayer money,” AIC wrote in the report. “ICE also provides insufficient supervision of local law enforcement agencies. But most egregiously, they have resulted in the widespread racial profiling of brown and black communities.”
Trump initially said he would prioritize arresting criminals, but he has expanded the deportation operation to include all illegal immigrants, with an increasing focus on job sites.
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With the goal of a million arrests by next January and roughly 14 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., four years will not be long enough to complete the undertaking, which is why locking down assistance from local and state police is a top priority for the Trump administration.
“We encourage all state and local law enforcement agencies to sign a 287(g) agreement now,” Sheahan said. “By joining forces with ICE, you’re not just gaining access to these unprecedented reimbursement opportunities — you’re becoming part of a national effort to ensure the safety of every American family.”