#287(g)

Lacretia Wimbley at St. Louis Public Radio:

The St. Charles County Council voted unanimously Monday night to approve a formal 287(g) partnership between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the county police department. The agreement would vest limited immigration enforcement authority with county police under oversight from ICE during routine police duties. The room was packed wall to wall with dozens of community residents, business owners and representatives from organizations including the Migrant and Immigrant Community Action Project and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. Ahead of the meeting, they gathered outside holding signs and chanting in unison: “When our neighbors are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” Bill No. 5474 was introduced three weeks ago with no discussion among council members — who again held no discussion before passing the measure Monday, despite the opposition in the room. The bill was requested by St. Charles County Chief of Police Kurt Frisz and sponsored by council Chair Mike Elam. The St. Charles County Police Department joins more than 60 other entities that have signed individual 287(g) agreements across the state.

Ken Klippenstein:

While ICE agents are temporarily confusing things even more at airports, behind the scenes the Trump administration is paying a posse of local police to carry out its immigration war. An internal ICE financial ledger I obtained shows how the agency is turning local police departments across the county into a vast, decentralized immigration army. This includes payments if cops sign up to be deputized, reimbursements for transportation, salary supplements for cops who process migrant children, and per-arrest-style incentive payments. All of this is taking place under an ICE program called 287(g), part of a 1996 law that granted the Attorney General (and later the Secretary of Homeland Security) the authority to enter into written agreements with state and local governments on immigration. The first agreement under the law was signed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement after 9/11; as of last year, the number of agreements has swelled past 1,000. Today, the program employs a “task force model” under which local police are deputized as ICE agents with the authority to carry out federal immigration law. So despite the broad public backlash against ICE, the agency has a way to carry out its mission without drawing attention to itself. An internal ICE diagram I obtained shows that local officers only become eligible for stipends and salary reimbursements after making their first arrest. The document labels that first arrest as the moment a participant becomes “OPERATIONAL.”

The ledger lists over 400 police departments where ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations is currently negotiating new or expanded cooperation agreements with local police departments, including the amount of money currently allocated to buy their cooperation. The largest payouts are to Florida law enforcement. In addition to earlier awards, ICE has set aside an extra $89 million in incentive funding for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles’ Division of Highway Patrol, which already has 1,803 “task force officers” credentialed under the program. Then there’s roughly $5 million for the 719 task force officers of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’, and nearly $4 million for the 503 task force officers of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

[...] In addition to Florida, other red states (and they are mostly red states) are taking ICE’s money to become bounty hunters to arrest supposed immigration law violators. Arkansas State Police is receiving a base award of $4,225,025 covering 550 task force officers, with an estimated $8,250,000 more in incentive funding to come. Oklahoma’s Department of Public Safety is getting a $5,380,025 base award covering 704 officers, a $1,650,000 salary modification on top of that, and a staggering $38,220,000 TBD line item still pending. Louisiana State Police is receiving a base award of $880,025 for 104 officers, plus an additional $45,000 salary modification. [...]

Absent from the list of bounty payments to states and localities are new payments to California, New Mexico, Illinois, Vermont, and Massachusetts as well as other “blue” states. The reason? The money is being doled out to cooperative pro-Trump states and departments, affirming that these are political payoffs and hardly a pure national program.

By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews As debate continues over Maryland’s recent ban on formal 287(g) immigration enforcement agreements, former 2022 Republican Lt. Governor candidate Gordana Schifanelli is pointing to the state constitution — not partisan politics — as the real center of the dispute. In a detailed legal analysis shared this week, Schifanelli argues that Article IV, Section 44 of the…

By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Governor Wes Moore has signed legislation prohibiting Maryland counties from entering into or continuing 287(g) agreements — the federal program that allows local law enforcement to be deputized to perform certain civil immigration enforcement functions. Republicans immediately blasted the move as an override of local sheriffs and a blow to public safety…

By MDBayNews Staff As Maryland lawmakers advance legislation to ban local participation in federal immigration enforcement, the state’s 2026 gubernatorial race is already revealing sharp ideological divides—not just between parties, but over the basic role of government itself. In a weekly media briefing released February 9, the Ellis/Andrews Green Party campaign endorsed a full ban on 287(g)…

MDBayNews Editorial The Baltimore Sun argues that immigration enforcement — particularly cooperation with ICE — makes Maryland communities less safe. It’s a comforting theory. It’s also one that collapses the moment it collides with reality on the ground in Maryland’s counties. This week’s push by Democratic lawmakers to outlaw all local cooperation with federal immigration authorities isn’t…

By MDBayNews Staff A procedural clash in the Maryland House of Delegates this week exposed a deeper problem inside the state’s one-party political system: when the minority uses the rules as written, the majority starts talking about changing the rules themselves. During floor proceedings, Joseline Peña‑Melnyk, the Democratic Speaker of the House, paused debate to issue a pointed warning to…

By MDBayNews Staff ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland General Assembly continued its 449th regular session on Wednesday, January 22, with a full slate of committee hearings but little formal floor activity, underscoring how early-session policy battles are already taking shape well before votes are cast. The 90-day session, which convened January 14 and runs through April 13, remains in its formative…