Local police working with ICE have doubled since January 2025

Local police officers are doing more immigration work than they did a year ago.

More than 29,000 state and local officers have been deputized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement between January 2025 and October 2026, according to a report from the immigration reform advocacy group FWD.us. That is more than double the 11,600 deportation officers ICE employs directly.

The report examined the federal 287(g) program, which places state and local police under immigration enforcement authority. FWD.us drew on ICE public records and information obtained by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley and UCLA. The program was created in the 1990s under the Clinton administration but was rarely used until President Trump returned to office.

Felicity Rose, vice president of research and policy at FWD.us, said the partnerships are central to the Trump administration's approach. "These state and local officers are a key lever in the administration's quieter approach to enforcement," Rose told NPR. She said the shift has moved enforcement away from urban operations in Chicago and Minneapolis toward routine highway stops under 287(g).

Florida and Texas agencies together accounted for about half of the more than 47,000 immigration arrests made nationally through 287(g) between January 2025 and August 2026. Both states have governors who have directed local police to sign these agreements. FWD.us also found that deputized officers in Wyoming made 77% of the state's immigration arrests in April 2026, and more than 60% each month since November 2025. In New Hampshire, the program accounted for 60% of immigration arrests in June 2026, and close to 50% in Oklahoma that same month.

Oklahoma's Highway Patrol enrolled all of its troopers, giving them authority to stop a driver and make an immigration arrest on state highways. Gabriela Ramirez-Perez, an immigration and economic security policy analyst with the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said residents are changing daily routines to avoid driving. "Even though Oklahoma may not be in the headlines, it's definitely a hotspot for immigration enforcement," Ramirez-Perez said.

The Justice Department earlier this summer offered $3 billion in funding for state and local agencies that join the program, with money going to staffing and equipment. Florida has already committed hundreds of millions of additional dollars to law enforcement agencies in exchange for participation.