The Trump administration has revived a “task force” model that allows local police officers to be deputized by ICE to stop people and make arrests based on suspicion that someone is in the country illegally.
Prior to the administration’s firing of watchdogs of Homeland Security, a report was being compiled that scrutinized the potential for nationwide threats to civil rights with the implementation of a program technically known as 287(g). Now that those watchdog jobs are essentially erased, those former watchdogs are throwing red flag warnings of a turbo-charged system of civil rights violations.
NBC News reports that those efforts to deputize local law enforcement agencies has increased by 950% in the first year of Trump’s second term.
As of January 26, there were 1,168 agencies with officers trained to help ICE, up from 135 during the Biden administration, and 150 at the end of Trump’s first term. Obama discontinued this task force in 2012 due to reports of racial profiling. There are now 39 states with departments participating with ICE, with the majorities of departments coming from Florida with 342, Texas with 296, Tennessee with 63, Pennsylvania with 58, and Alabama with 52.
With funding from the Big Beautiful Bill, the administration is offering new funding for states, local police departments, and sheriff’s offices.
ICE’s advertising for the program includes $7,500 for equipment for each trained officer, $100,000 for new vehicles, and overtime pay up to 25% for participating officers’ salaries. The potential funding for departments to gain is estimated at $1.4 billion to $2 billion.