The Briefing:
- ICE says it has signed 2,589 agreements as of Sept. 26, and 1,841 of them are Task Force deals that let trained local officers act on immigration during routine police work.
- South Florida is the strongest patrol-level zone, while Houston-area agreements are mostly jail-based, and Harris County's status is unsettled ahead of a Dec. 1 Texas deadline.
- New York's ban took effect Aug. 25 and Nassau County complied, but Rensselaer County and a group of sheriffs are fighting it in court. Illinois and California laws keep Chicago and Los Angeles off the map.
The National Picture: Three Models, One Big Number
ICE reports that it has signed 2,589 memorandums of agreement under the 287(g) program, covering 39 states and two U.S. territories, according to its own tally updated Sept. 26. The count breaks down into 1,841 Task Force agreements, 564 warrant-service deals and 184 jail-enforcement deals.
The split matters more than the total. Only the Task Force model lets local officers use limited immigration authority during ordinary policing, such as a traffic stop. The other two models operate only inside jails. For a driver, a department with a Task Force deal is a very different proposition from a sheriff who only serves warrants on people already booked.
Why the "13,000 Officers" Figure Needs Caveats
The most-quoted deputization estimate comes from FWD.us, a group that advocates on immigration and criminal justice policy, not from ICE or a court. Its February brief put the range at 13,800 to 15,800 officers, and the math rests on an assumption that agencies send roughly similar numbers of people to training. It is an estimate, not a headcount.
A later update to the same research says that as of July 10, more than 1,400 agencies held active Task Force agreements, and about one in seven Americans lives in a county where a county agency is deputized. The Latin Times covered the original analysis when it was released.
Miami and South Florida: The Program Reaches Into City Halls
Florida is the only state where all 67 county sheriffs hold patrol-level agreements, and that includes Miami-Dade and Broward. Broward's sheriff had served warrants under a jail-based deal since 2019 and added the Task Force model on top of it.
Cities followed. Hialeah and Coral Gables signed in March 2025, and the city of Miami's commission approved its agreement that June after a split debate. Doral, where roughly 70% of residents were born abroad, approved a resolution in 2025, and the city signed the agreement in January, according to a Miami Herald report from Sept. 22. City officials told the paper no Doral officers had been trained yet. The same report counted 379 such agreements statewide.
Miami's deal is now a live political fight. Mayor Eileen Higgins says she opposes it but that only the city commission can end it. As of late August, the agreement was still in place while activists bought billboards to press for a vote.
Farther north, 19 of Palm Beach County's 20 police agencies had signed Task Force agreements as of November 2025.
Houston: Patrol Deals Are Rare, and Harris County Is the Open Question
A Houston-area law firm's February roundup shows a patchwork rather than a blanket. Galveston County is the standout, with a Task Force agreement for its sheriff and for two constable precincts. Fort Bend has jail and warrant deals, Brazoria, Liberty and Waller have warrant-only arrangements, and Chambers has a jail-only agreement. That roundup found Harris County had none, and its sheriff ended the earlier one in 2017.
That picture may already be dated. In May, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said sheriffs in El Paso, Bexar and Harris counties had started negotiating or finalized agreements with ICE, though he did not say which stage Harris had reached. Texas Senate Bill 8 requires sheriffs who run jails to comply no later than Dec. 1, 2026, and lets the attorney general sue those who do not.
New York: A Ban, a Compliance Scramble and a Court Fight
New York's Local Cops, Local Crimes Act took effect Aug. 25 and required local agencies to dissolve their agreements. State officials said 12 agencies held deals before the law, and all but Rensselaer County's sheriff's office had indicated they would comply.
Nassau County ended both of its agreements the next day. County Executive Bruce Blakeman said he opposed the law but would follow it, adding, "We will continue to work with ICE" within the law's limits.
The map has not gone blank. Fifteen sheriffs, Rensselaer County's among them, filed a federal suit to overturn the ban, and the state separately sued Rensselaer's sheriff to force him to end his agreement. The sheriffs have since asked a federal judge for an injunction, arguing harm cannot be undone after trial. A ruling for them could redraw the map.
Chicago and Los Angeles: State Law Sets the Boundary
Illinois barred county governments from signing 287(g) contracts in 2019, and no Illinois county held one when the law passed. California acted earlier: its 2017 Values Act limited local cooperation, which pushed Orange County's sheriff to end that county's agreement, as did Los Angeles County's own vote in 2015. A September 2025 tally by immigration researcher Austin Kocher found no agreements in either state, but ICE's live list is the authority on today's status.
How to Check Your Own Department
Start with ICE's participating-agencies list and look up both your county sheriff and your city police department, since they often differ. Then check your city council's agenda: Miami's agreement passed by a single vote, and the fight over ending it is still open.
