Texas Democrats are pressuring cities in their state to terminate contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allow the Trump administration to deputize state and local law enforcement officers as immigration agents.
Such agreements inked between local law enforcement agencies and ICE have skyrocketed during President Donald Trump’s second term as his administration attempts to deport as many immigrants — regardless of criminal history or lawful status — as possible. The move by Texas Democrats is part of a larger effort by the party, especially among Democratic governors, to ban or terminate police agreements with ICE.
Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio is leading the push against the agreements, which give local law enforcement similar protections to federal agents when carrying out immigration enforcement. Castro was joined by fellow Democratic Rep. Greg Casar, Texas state representatives and other local officials in pushing mayors to abandon the contracts with ICE.
“Your city’s participation in this program increases the risk that residents in a majority-Latino county will be targeted and racially profiled,” the lawmakers and local officials wrote to mayors across four Bexar County cities on Wednesday. “Your police department’s partnership with ICE will not only increase the risk of constitutional rights violations against your constituents but will damage public trust, strain your local law enforcement’s resources and budget, and diminish economic activity in your city and region.”
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Texas and Florida are among the top states with the most agreements under the 287(g) program, named for a section of federal immigration law. The Trump administration has used the program to ramp up immigration arrests, enlisting police officers, state troopers and sheriff’s deputies in the president’s deportation campaign.
As of July, 1, 467 state and local law enforcement agencies had signed up for the controversial “task force” model across 32 states, according to data on ICE’s website. That means ICE is able to deputize thousands of officers across those local law enforcement agencies to stop people and arrest them if they are suspected of being in the country illegally.
In total, ICE has inked 2,179 agreements establishing partnerships with local law enforcement, including deals to process immigrants already held in jails. Those contracts have exploded since the start of the Trump administration, up from 135 at the end of the Biden administration and roughly 150 at the end of Trump’s first term, according to an analysis by the immigration advocacy group FWD.us.
“ICE has supercharged efforts with state and local law enforcement to assist federal immigration officers in our efforts to make America safe again,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, who refused to provide their name, told MS NOW. The spokesperson added that such agreements have increased by “1,597%” since the start of Trump’s second term.
DHS did not say how many officers total have been deputized to work with ICE. Officers are cleared to carry out immigration arrests after completing 40 hours of online training or as determined by ICE.
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