ICE Promises Massive Incentives to Police and Sheriffs Even as Additional Funding Debated in Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new brief released by FWD.us shows that participation in ICE’s 287(g) program has ballooned over 900% in the second Trump administration, significantly expanding ICE’s reach. Over 760 local law enforcement agencies have already signed up for the previously discredited Task Force Model, deputizing between 13,800 and 15,800 police officers and sheriff’s deputies with immigration enforcement powers compared to 12,000 new employees hired by ICE in the same period.

Previously, ICE paid for training and IT infrastructure for departments that signed up for the 287(g) program. Under a new funding model set forth by the Administration, ICE is promising to pay full salaries and overtime of officers trained to do immigration enforcement in addition to start-up costs and even “performance” bonuses tied to immigration arrests meaning officers will be directly financially rewarded for arresting people suspected to be immigrants. 

“Over a decade ago, we saw how deputizing local law enforcement to do immigration enforcement could result in disaster under Sheriff Arpaio and others,” said Todd Schulte, President of FWD.us. “Federal incentives to target and profile will harm immigrant communities and have spillover effects on other communities already targeted by local law enforcement impacting immigrants and citizens alike.”

This brief shows that at least $137 million has already reached local police; and based on the agencies currently signed up this new ICE funding pipeline could send between $1.4 and $2 billion more in 2026. If sign-ups continue at a similar rate, that number could reach $3.4 billion by 2027 funding roughly 29,000 deputized officers nationwide.

“This would be by far the largest infusion of federal funding into local law enforcement since the 1990s COPS grants, which increased low-level arrests while having no significant impact on crime,” said Felicity Rose, Vice President of Criminal Justice Research and Policy at FWD.us. “Research on the 287(g) Task Force Model showed it too caused massive harm to communities while failing to reduce crime. This program is a confluence of two bad ideas that should be left in the past where they belong.”

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