287(g) Deputized 29,000 Local Officers, Outpacing ICE's Own Ranks

Local police officers working alongside federal immigration agents now outnumber the deportation officers employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement itself, a shift that has quietly reshaped how enforcement is carried out on American roads and in county jails. Between January 2025 and October 2026, ICE deputized more than 29,000 state and local officers through its 287(g) program, according to a report from the advocacy group FWD.us. ICE directly employs 11,600 deportation officers.

The program, created in the 1990s under the Clinton administration, sat largely dormant for years. Its use has expanded sharply since President Trump returned to office. FWD.us drew on ICE public records and data requested by the Deportation Data Project, a research effort based at UC Berkeley and UCLA.

Arrests followed the deputizations. Law enforcement agencies in Florida and Texas together accounted for roughly half of the more than 47,000 immigration arrests made nationwide through 287(g) between January 2025 and August 2026, the report found. Governors in both states have required local police to sign these agreements. Wyoming, New Hampshire and Oklahoma also recorded sharp figures: deputized officers in Wyoming carried out 77% of all immigration arrests in the state in April 2026, and more than 60% of them every month since November 2025. In New Hampshire, the program accounted for 60% of arrests in June 2026. In Oklahoma, state and local police made close to half that month.

The most common arrangement under 287(g) is the Task Force Model, which lets police and sheriff's departments arrest people for immigration violations. Agencies that remain in active participation under their signed agreements receive federal funding for cars, equipment and other enforcement resources. The Justice Department offered $3 billion earlier this summer to state and local agencies that join. Florida has already directed hundreds of millions of dollars to its own law enforcement agencies for taking part.

Felicity Rose, vice president of research and policy at FWD.us, said the money appears to be pulling agencies into the program. "These state and local officers are a key lever in the administration's quieter approach to enforcement. They're trading what used to be splashy urban surges, which we saw in Chicago and Minneapolis, for just routine highway stops now under the 287(g) program," Rose told NPR ahead of the report's release.

Oklahoma's Highway Patrol enrolled all of its troopers, giving them authority to stop drivers on state highways and potentially make immigration arrests. Gabriela Ramirez-Perez, immigration and economic security policy analyst at the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said residents have adjusted their movements in response. "Even though Oklahoma may not be in the headlines, it's definitely a hotspot for immigration enforcement," Ramirez-Perez said. "We can say that it's definitely resulting in a lot of fear in immigrant communities. People are changing their day to day routines to try to avoid getting on the highway, to try to avoid driving as much as possible."

The Department of Homeland Security has said 287(g) helps reduce crime and illegal immigration. FWD.us said the scale of deputizations shows the program's role in the administration's enforcement work.