The New York Times
What even is ICE and why do people loathe them so much?
Across America, the local agencies have recently become immigration enforcers under a federal scheme. The officials say it becomes stronger for public safety, but some critics warn they spread fear, and abrades trust, and threaten the fabric of the immigrant communities. Which is known as the 287(g) program. This program was invented in 1996 and it was called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which gives the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the right to permit state and local law enforcement officers to a
show any particular Immigration enforcement obligations under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) control.
The scheme is envisioned by some as a way to quicken up Mr. Trump’s attempt on illegal immigration as the Department of Justice moves to sue state & local officials who were accused of hindering that attempt. It was highlighted by the security of the Department of Homeland Security that the cooperation between federal and local law enforcement in a news release on Monday, which is pointing to a 4-day operation that led to the apprehension of almost 800 undocumented immigrants.
The release said it is nicknamed “Operational Tidal Wave” for this type of collaboration. Also said that it is a “preview of what is to come around the United States, which has larger-scale functions that employ our state and local law enforcement teammates to get criminal illegal migrants off our streets.” The 287(g) program, has increased use during Mr. Trump’s 2nd term which is a part of his efforts so he can attain a campaign promise on addressing immigration, immigration has been a thing for over almost 30 years and it was a primary point of the lawsuit that is against one of America’s most infamous sheriffs. On the authority of ICE, they say that throughout the 287(g) program, the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can partner up with local agencies through 3 models: the Task Force Model, the Jail Enforcement Model, and the Warrant Service Officer program.
Another thing that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said was, “the Jail Enforcement Model allows your enforcers to recognize and to concentrate on the removal of the migrants currently in your jail or a detention facility who have been uncertain or had active criminal charges while they’re in your custody.” The Task Force Model allows the local enforcers who are under ICE’s unintentionally to observe any particular immigration laws during the routine policing patrol. The Warrant Service Officer program trains the local law enforcement officers, which is something that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says that it reinforces the whole cost, and to serve managerial immigration warrants on captivity in their custody.
The State law enforcement organizations want to participate in the scheme and must enter into the Memorandum of Agreement, a written document outlining a cooperative relationship between two or more parties, with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which was confirmed in the act, before joining the scheme. On the authority from the American Immigration Council, they said the Memorandum of Agreement is a organization that is made between the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement organizations are accorded to any certain states and the local officers, federal immigration enforcement has the power to enter ICE’s database to find data and to case administration system, interviewing with the immigrants about their immigration conditions and to having access the DHS database and publishing immigration detentions.
The American Civil Liberties Union says, the end of President Barack Obama’s administration, about 34 local law enforcement organizations were a part of the agency. Their website last week on April 24, 2025, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) signed about 450 Memoranda of Agreement for the 287(g) organizations that are covering 38 states; therefore, this concludes that more than 450 agencies have recently a part of the organization. Most are sheriff’s offices and mostly police agencies; a few are state-level departments like the Montana Department of
Justice and the Alaska Department of Corrections.
It was confirmed in February by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who said they have many agencies in the organization statewide and in most participating states. They are involved with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Highway Patrol, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida State Guard, and the Florida Department of Agricultural Law Enforcement. All of them have signed collaborative agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to a January governmental order from President Trump, agreements are meant to be handled under federal guidance and supplement, not replace, federal attempts.
The Immigrant Legal Resources Center said, the growth of the organization for the 287(g) program, determining the Task Force Model, further fuels Mr. Trump’s coherent deportation organization by expanding the ambush for putting
citizens to be arrested on deportation conduit. “Agreements are constitutionally at odds with the goals of local patrol, ” said Juan Cuba, who is with the Miami Freedom Project. Mr. Cuba said that on Sunday, they erode community trust in the local law enforcement, and divert limited resources that could be focused on very sinister crimes.
On the other hand, a big argument about the 287(g) organization was once at the center of a lawsuit that was filed against the man who is nicknamed “America’s toughest Sheriff,” Joe Arpaio, after the complaints that immigration blitz
from his deputy assistants that amount to the unauthorized roundups of the Latinos. The American Immigration Council reported, on an investigation that later found the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office had a motif of civil rights criticisms that have led the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to delay its collaboration agreement that is under section 287(g) with the sheriff’s office and to confine the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s (MCSO) access to the immigration databases through the Secure Communities Organization (SCO). It is noticed that the Organization has created a system of racial profiling by law enforcement. On the authority of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), they have been concentrating on ending the program for over a decade. The non-profit program they called in a way, called “sheriffs are infamous for xenophobia, racism, and civil rights violations could aim and attack the migrants in their communities.” A report from 3 years ago from the program that was titled in part “License to Abuse” suggested that many of the sheriffs’ partners in 287(g) have eroded public safety, resorting to a previous climate of fear for immigrants, and contributing to the risk of racial profiling.