Federal immigration authorities detained 12 undocumented immigrants over six months through a partnership with local police, Keller Mayor Armin Mizani announced Wednesday.
In 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained 11 people booked into the Keller Regional Detention Facility, according to a news release from Mizani’s campaign for state office. Another immigrant was detained just after the start of the new year.
Mizani said in a text message to the Fort Worth Report that he “wouldn’t know” whether the detainees have been deported or if they’re being detained locally by ICE officials.
“Once handed to ICE, then that’s their jurisdiction,” he wrote via text.
Keller City Council members unanimously voted to join ICE’s 287(g) program in August, about one month after Mizani announced he would seek election to a Texas House seat. The agreement allows local police officers to screen the immigration status of people they book into jail, then flag undocumented immigrants for ICE to detain.
“Keller will do its part to hold offenders accountable and send them back home,” Mizani said in a Wednesday news release. “We support our police, we support the rule of law, and we will deport every criminal illegal immigrant we can under the law to keep our community safe.”
All 12 detainees were Hispanic men, Mizani said via text. All were arrested for criminal offenses such as outstanding warrants, property theft, driving while intoxicated, possession of drug paraphernalia, displaying fake license plates and producing counterfeit documents, he added.
Those detained were booked into the jail by the Keller, Southlake, Colleyville, Roanoke and Westlake police departments, Mizani told the Report. Keller Police Chief Brad Fortune did not return a request for comment.
All county sheriff offices that operate a jail in Texas are required to join the federal 287(g) program, according to a state law Gov. Greg Abbott signed this past summer. Most municipal police departments in Tarrant book arrestees into the county jail, which has voluntarily partnered with ICE since 2017 when Sheriff Bill Waybourn took office.
Municipal police departments are not required to join the program. Keller is the largest North Texas police department — and only one in Tarrant — to opt in, despite opposition from dozens of residents in August.
In the summer, five Fort Worth City Council members told the Report that the council had not discussed joining the 287(g) program, saying a partnership with ICE was not imminent.
Over the weekend, an estimated 700 people rallied in downtown Fort Worth to protest the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer.
The killing of Renee Nicole Good, 37, marked at least the fifth death linked to immigration enforcement in recent months, according to the Associated Press. Detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants has been a key focus of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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