Nearly 1.5 million Texans now live in jurisdictions where sheriffs or police chiefs have agreed to train some of their officers to act as immigration agents in the streets of their communities. These agreements currently cover around 30 Texas law enforcement agencies including: the sheriff’s departments in the populous counties of Jefferson and Smith, home to Beaumont and Tyler; sheriffs in sparsely populated South Texas counties along much of the corridor from the Rio Grande Valley to San Antonio; and municipal police departments in the small towns of Nixon and Splendora.
Last week, the sheriff’s office in Galveston County, where more than 360,000 people live, also inked an agreement—making it the most populous local jurisdiction in Texas to sign one so far.
These arrangements are what are known as 287(g) “task force” model agreements, which essentially deputize local cops as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after they’ve received training. Officers gain the powers to “interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or remain in the United States”; arrest without a warrant anyone the officer believes “is in the United States in violation of law and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained”; execute warrants for immigration violations; and prepare immigration charging documents. When exercising this newfound authority, local officers must seek guidance from an ICE supervisor—but are allowed to do so “as soon as is practicable” after exercising the authority. ICE pays for the required training but does not reimburse local agencies for their time spent enforcing immigration law.
Two other forms of 287(g) agreements exist; both are limited to the county jail setting and have sparked far less controversy than the task force model, which was revived by President Donald Trump earlier this year more than a decade after it was terminated amid controversy over racial profiling. Since Trump’s inauguration, ICE has inked more than 700 new 287(g) agreements nationwide including more than 400 task forces. (The full list, which is updated frequently, is available on ICE’s website.)
“The administration is doing everything possible to arrest and deport as many immigrants as possible, including those who have pending applications or court processes to obtain protection,” said Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council. “Given the well-documented history of racial profiling, particularly related to the task force model but also the use of the partnership to funnel suspected immigrants into jails, this expansion will likely lead to an enduring distrust of these institutions.”
Orozco said the program may soon be supercharged by Congress’ recent tax cuts-and-spending bill, HR 1, which contains $75 billion for ICE detention and removal operations. The bill authorizes new spending on the 287(g) program, and an earlier House version of the legislation specified the amount as $650 million. Those funds are expected to go to salaries for supervising ICE agents and the costs to conduct 287(g) training, Orozco said, but not reimbursement of local law enforcement partners. ICE did not respond to questions or a request for comment.
In June, Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8, which will require nearly all Texas sheriffs to request and sign 287(g) agreements with ICE by the end of next year. The law does not specify what type of 287(g) agreement they must seek.
Two state agencies—the attorney general’s office and the National Guard—have also signed task force agreements, though neither agency answered Texas Observer questions about how they plan to work with ICE. The Guard is also subject to a separate agreement, per a different federal statute, that was signed by the governor early this year and allows soldiers to enforce immigration law in tandem with Border Patrol.
In Texas, the Observer has found that ICE has begun rolling out the required training for its task force partners. In Smith County, nestled in East Texas’ piney woods, Sheriff Larry Smith said that he and two dozen deputies have finalized their 40-hour online training. But the county’s top cop is still not sure what their next steps are. “We’re waiting to hear from ICE or the Department of Homeland Security to see what capacity that they might want to work with us in and then go from there,” he said. Despite the task force program’s checkered past of racial profiling, Smith said his deputies won’t start policing based on skin color. “We’re not going to … stop somebody tomorrow and if they look like they’re of Hispanic heritage, we’re not going to ask them, ‘Let me see your papers. Are you here legally? Are you not here legally?’ We’re going to ask to see their driver’s license if we’re stopping that vehicle, and, now, if they don’t have a driver’s license, then go with further steps that you try to determine who they are.”
Over in Brooks County, Sheriff Urbino “Benny” Martinez said most of his deputies hadn’t completed the training process yet. Matt Benacci, spokesperson for the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office, which has been subject to criticism in recent years for its cozy relationship with vigilante groups, said he was unsure if training had begun. Deputies in Jefferson County, home to 250,000 residents, have not yet completed training, a chief deputy said, and neither had those in Galveston County according to a sheriff’s sergeant.
In one case, the Observer found that ICE had incorrectly listed an agency as having signed a 287(g) task enforcement agreement in its public-facing spreadsheet. In early July, the four-officer police department of Southside Place, a wealthy enclave city of 1,800 residents completely surrounded by Houston, was marked as having a task force deal.
“They might be getting ahead of their skis,” said Southside Place Police Chief Don McCall when reached by phone on July 14. “This is something that has to be presented to city council, and we don’t even meet with city council till next month.” ICE later removed his department from its list of participating agencies.
Then, on Tuesday, McCall told the Observer that because he’s planning to retire at the end of the year, he’d decided not to pursue the task force agreement with ICE anymore.
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