What to Understand About the 287(g) Program

A 287(g) agreement gives certain federal immigration enforcement powers to local and state law police who normally would not have legal authority to make immigration arrests or do other federal immigration enforcement activities.

There are three main kinds of 287(g) agreements:

• Warrant Service Officer model
• Jail Enforcement model
• Task Force model

The differences are that the “Warrant Service Officer” model only gives limited powers to the local agency. The “Jail Enforcement Model” gives more immigration enforcement powers to the local law enforcement agency, but still only within the jail operations. The “Task Force” model grants the most powers and effectively gives local or state law enforcement officers most of the powers of immigration enforcement agents.

The 287(g) program allows a local or state law enforcement agency to sign an agreement with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). This agreement specifies what immigration enforcement powers are granted to the local agency. Upon completion of this agreement and training of the participating officers, those officers will be able to act like ICE agents within their jail or in conducting their other law enforcement activities.

The participating agency does not receive any money from ICE for doing this. It is entirely funded by existing local budgets.

Normally, local police can only stop or arrest people based on the laws of their state. Under 287(g), designated officers can also stop, interrogate, arrest, or transport immigrants based purely on immigration violations.

For example, without 287(g), police can stop drivers for traffic violations or detain someone they suspect committed a crime, such as stealing. Generally, police cannot legally stop or detain a person just based on immigration violations. Even if they stop or arrest the person based on suspicion of a crime, they cannot legally continue to detain that person based only on civil immigration violations. But an officer who has been designated under 287(g) can. In these cases, the local police can act like ICE agents, but individuals have the same constitutional rights when dealing with them.

Sometimes police say that they stopped a person based on a traffic violation or some other reason, but they actually targeted that person because of their race or ethnicity. This is racial profiling. In 287(g) jurisdictions this is more likely to happen because 287(g) designated officers have been granted more power and encouraged to target immigrant communities.

Historically, 287(g) agreements have only existed in a relatively small number of places, mostly some county jails in a handful of states. Many communities have enacted policies limiting their involvement in deportations and have avoided or terminated 287(g) agreements. But more recently, some states have taken to threatening immigrant communities and forcefully turning law enforcement against them. Florida, Georgia, and other states have recently passed state laws specifically requiring all their counties to participate in 287(g). Meanwhile, in the last few months, the Trump Administration has expanded it to hundreds of new jurisdictions.

This rapid expansion will change the way local communities – in particular immigrants and communities of color – experience policing, as now more and more state and local police will be legally empowered to act as immigration agents.

The growth of the 287g program, in particular of the Task Force Model, further fuels Trump’s mass deportation agenda by expanding the dragnet for putting people into the arrest to deportation pipeline.

For the most up to date information about what agencies have active 287(g) agreements, check ICE’s webpage: https://www.ice.gov/identify-and-arrest/287g

The ILRC also provides an interactive map of 287(g) agreements and other resources for immigrants and advocates about 287(g): ilrc.me/287g

Everyone in the U.S. has rights, regardless of immigration status. It is important to know your rights, in particular when interacting with law enforcement agents, whether it is local police or ICE. To access vital know-your-rights community tools, visit ilrc.me/protect.