Local police deputized for immigration arrests swell to 29,000 since January 2025

State and local police forces are now doing more immigration enforcement work than the federal agency that hired them. A report from FWD.us says ICE has deputized more than 29,000 state and local officers through its 287(g) program since January 2025, a figure more than double the 11,600 deportation officers ICE employs directly.

The 287(g) program, created in the 1990s under President Clinton, authorizes local police and sheriff's departments to make immigration arrests. FWD.us built its report from ICE public records and data requested by the Deportation Data Project, based at UC Berkeley and UCLA. Felicity Rose, vice president of research and policy at FWD.us, said the program is central to the administration's enforcement posture.

"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. The Department of Homeland Security has said 287(g) is a critical tool to cut down on crime and illegal immigration.

The geographic spread is uneven. Law enforcement agencies in Florida and Texas together accounted for roughly half of the more than 47,000 immigration arrests made nationally through 287(g) between January 2025 and August 2026. Governors in both states have mandated that local police sign these agreements. Other states have also recorded sharp figures: in Wyoming, deputized officers carried out 77% of the state's total immigration arrests in April 2026, and more than 60% of monthly arrests since November 2025. New Hampshire recorded 60% in June 2026, and Oklahoma close to 50% that month.

Oklahoma's Highway Patrol enrolled all of its troopers in 287(g), allowing them to stop a driver on state highways and potentially make an immigration arrest. Gabriela Ramirez-Perez, an immigration and economic security policy analyst at the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said the effect is felt in daily routines.

"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."

Money is a central driver of the expansion. The Justice Department offered $3 billion in funding earlier this summer to state and local agencies that join the program, with funds available for staffing and equipment in coming years. Florida has already provided hundreds of millions of dollars to law enforcement agencies in the state for participation. Rose said the promise of funding appears to be behind the surge in participation.