type: timeline_event
By March 2026, ICE's 287(g) program — which deputizes local law enforcement to perform federal immigration enforcement functions — had expanded to 1,547 agreements spanning 39 states. An ACLU analysis found that 77.2 million Americans, roughly 32 percent of the U.S. population, now lived in a county where local police had formal authority to act as immigration agents. The scale of the expansion was unprecedented: at the start of the Trump administration's second term, the program had included fewer than 300 agreements.
The rapid growth was driven in significant part by financial incentives that ICE offered to participating departments. Reporting by KCUR and WVIA documented a package of inducements that included vehicles valued at up to $100,000 each, equipment grants of $7,500 per participating officer, and partial salary reimbursement for officers assigned to immigration duties. For small and rural police departments with tight budgets, the equipment and funding represented a substantial financial windfall that was difficult to refuse regardless of a department's views on immigration policy.
The expansion generated a sharp state-level policy divergence. New Mexico, Maine, and Maryland enacted outright bans on 287(g) participation, with legislators arguing that the program undermined community trust in local police and diverted resources from public safety. On the opposite end, Idaho passed legislation requiring all police departments in the state to sign 287(g) agreements, making it the first state to mandate participation in the program. The Idaho law included penalties for police chiefs and sheriffs who refused to comply.
Civil liberties organizations raised alarms about the program's intersection with surveillance infrastructure. Under 287(g) agreements, local officers gained access to federal immigration databases and were authorized to issue ICE detainers — hold requests that could keep individuals in jail beyond their scheduled release. The ACLU documented cases in which the program led to racial profiling, with Latino residents in 287(g) counties reporting increased police stops and demands for documentation during routine encounters. Researchers noted that the program effectively transformed local police into a distributed federal immigration enforcement network with minimal oversight.