BEL AIR, Md. – As President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration solidifies its mass deportation plan, local law enforcement agencies are set to strengthen a controversial program that allows them to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The 287(g) program empowers state and local law enforcement officers to help enforce federal immigration law and is likely one way the new administration will bolster its workforce as it begins what it calls the largest deportation effort in U.S. history. But it could also be a flashpoint for a brewing legal standoff as Inauguration Day nears.
Tom Homan, He will serve as Trump’s “border tsar”. He visited Texas on Tuesday to explain the incoming administration’s mass deportation plans.
“We’re not waiting until January,” Homan said. “We will develop a plan and secure this nation.”
Homan, the former acting ICE director during Trump’s first term, made the promise “Take the handcuffs off ICE.”
The 287(g) program was added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996 under then-President Bill Clinton. It authorizes ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement agencies the ability to perform certain immigration officer functions. After a suspect is arrested for a crime, a trained corrections officer can access the ICE database to see more information about their immigration status, and then detain the person for up to 48 hours if ICE chooses to take them for deportation.
Proponents of the program argue that it prevents local officials from rounding up undocumented immigrants on the streets, and that any processing after a suspect is arrested on other charges takes place in the agency’s jail or detention center. According to ICEAs of May 2024, law enforcement agencies of 21 states participated in the program.
Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler is a supporter of the program, and he believes local law enforcement should work with ICE to help enforce immigration laws. He also pushed back against criticism that it would lead to unfair targeting of undocumented immigrants.
“It’s not stopping people on the street — it’s not saying, ‘Show your papers,'” Gahler said. “If they’re brought in — they’re being arrested for something they’ve done. They’re citizens of our community. And then they’re held accountable for being in the country illegally.”
Gahler is no stranger to being at the center of the country’s immigration debate. He has made several trips to the southern border and worked on a high-profile murder case involving an alleged undocumented immigrant in his county.
Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was reported missing on August 5, 2023, and her body was found the next day on a popular jogging track. Victor Martinez Hernandez of El Salvador was arrested After a 10-month nationwide manhunt. He was extradited to Maryland, where he was charged with first-degree murder and rape.
The victim’s mother, Patty Morin, remembers when she first learned the suspect was undocumented.
“I was really, really angry,” he told NBC News. “I thought we had laws for that sort of thing. … But as more and more information became available, I realized that something had gone wrong somewhere.”
Another proponent of the 287(g) program is Sheriff Samuel Page of Rockingham County, North Carolina. It’s a more rural area than Mecklenburg County, where controversy over the program arose in 2018 when a new sheriff cut ties with it. Page said his county signed on to the program in 2020 and has trained about a dozen corrections officers. He said there have been fewer applications for ICE detainers under President Joe Biden’s administration.
“When President Biden came in, he ended a lot of programs that were good for protecting the American people,” he said. “We have to draw the line and say that the rule of law in America is going to be important.”
The 287(g) program has long been controversial. Democrats have moved to repeal the agreements in various parts of the country. The American Civil Liberties Union strongly opposes the program, arguing it amounts to racial profiling while instilling fear in immigrant communities. The ACLU’s Maryland chapter said local police officers are “completely unprepared” to act as immigration agents.
“It hurts those families,” said Todd Schulte, president of the immigrant advocacy group FWD.us. “This leads to worse public safety outcomes. It reduces trust in communities and damages the economy.”
According to former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser, even within ICE, there is debate about “whether the juice is worth the squeeze.” That could be effective for big cities, he said, where having trained corrections officers help with immigration enforcement in jails could free up other ICE agents to search the streets for immigrants with more serious criminal records. However, in sparsely populated areas, the time and effort to train officers may be considered inefficient.
Other critics have said the 287(g) program simply serves as a political messaging tool for conservative sheriffs.
Trump’s campaign platform vowed to require local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. But a growing number of Democrats are vowing to oppose it. Earlier this month, the Los Angeles City Council passed a decree which prohibits the use of city resources in immigration enforcement.
Elected officials in Massachusetts they are already colliding with the Trump team on immigration. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston he said he was ready to go to jail to stop efforts that the president-elect believes are illegal or wrong.
All this sets the stage for a confrontation after the inauguration.
“Local and state officials on the front lines of the Harris-Biden border invasion have been suffering for four years and can’t wait for President Trump to return to the Oval Office,” said Carolyn Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition team. “On day one, President Trump will use all of his power to secure the border, protect their communities, and carry out the largest mass deportation of criminal illegal immigrants in history.”
As for the 287(g) program, corrections officers in Harford County, Maryland are bracing for changes with the Trump administration next year.
“I believe we’re going to be very busy,” said Sgt. Christopher Crespo. The program was “very effective. … The last thing you want is for someone to commit a murder on the street and find out it’s illegal here.”