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Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown has said she does not plan to pursue an agreement with ICE.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
The Dallas County sheriff must cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or face legal consequences, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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In a letter to Sheriff Marian Brown, Paxton called her decision not to seek a cooperative partnership with ICE<\/a> “troubling” and “not yours to make.” He provided a deadline of June 1 for Brown to begin the process.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “I will not let the people of Dallas County pay the price for your dereliction of duty,” Paxton wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brown said in a statement\u00a0the sheriff’s office\u00a0already “maintains an active working relationship with ICE” and that it “remains committed to continued compliance with applicable state and federal law.”<\/p>\n As it seeks to deport roughly 1 million people a year, the Trump administration revived a decades-old program that allows local law enforcement officers to interrogate immigrants and detain them for potential deportation. Typically, that authority is reserved for federal agents. Since President Donald Trump took office, ICE has expanded the program to hundreds of agencies across the country.<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Texas lawmakers last year passed a bill requiring every Texas sheriff’s office with a jail to sign an agreement, formally called a 287(g), with the federal government.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sheriff’s offices must sign an agreement by\u00a0Dec. 1, 2026 under the law, not June 1, Brown noted in her statement.<\/p>\n Tarrant, Denton and Ellis counties have signed agreements, as have hundreds of other law enforcement agencies across Texas. Dallas County has so far declined to do so.<\/p>\n