The largest mass deportation of illegal aliens in American history is underway.
Donald Trump revolutionized how immigration enforcement operates.
Sheriffs nationwide teamed up with Trump for one plan that Democrats will hate.
ICE just got 1,400 new partners
Trump handed local sheriffs the keys to immigration enforcement.
And they grabbed them.
ICE signed 1,415 partnerships with local police and sheriff's offices across 40 states as of mid-February.
That's an explosion from just 135 agreements during Biden's presidency and 150 at the end of Trump's first term.
These aren't paper agreements – they're turning local cops into ICE agents who can make immigration arrests during traffic stops.
The 287(g) program deputizes local officers to enforce federal immigration law in their daily work.
Florida leads with 342 agencies signed up, Texas has 296, Tennessee has 63, Pennsylvania has 58, and Alabama has 52.
Trump brought back the most aggressive model – the task force version Obama killed in 2012 after Sheriff Joe Arpaio used it in Arizona.
798 agencies across 35 states now use that exact model to turn routine policing into deportation operations.
Democrats tried to bury this program – Trump supercharged it
Obama shut down the task force model after bogus investigations claimed it led to racial profiling in Maricopa County, Arizona and Alamance County, North Carolina.
Biden froze all new agreements and let the program collect dust with just 135 partnerships.
Trump flipped the script the moment he took office in January 2025, issuing Executive Order 14159 requiring ICE to maximize 287(g) partnerships.
He made it impossible for sheriffs to say no.
Florida passed a law in 2022 requiring every detention facility to sign a 287(g) agreement with ICE.
Texas is pushing similar legislation forcing sheriffs in counties over 100,000 people to participate.
Trump made sheriffs an offer they can't refuse
The One Big Beautiful Bill pumped billions into making these partnerships irresistible.
Starting October 1, 2025, ICE covers 100% of officer salaries and benefits for trained 287(g) officers.
That includes overtime pay up to 25% of their annual salary – money from federal coffers instead of local budgets.
Agencies get $7,500 per officer for equipment, $100,000 for new vehicles, and quarterly performance bonuses up to $1,000 per officer.
Federal funding flowing to local agencies hits between $1.4 billion and $2 billion this year.
That dwarfs every other federal law enforcement grant program combined.
Florida collected $38.5 million in equipment and transportation funding for its 4,650 participating officers.
Montgomery County, Maryland and Dallas rejected the program over concerns it pulls officers from regular duties.
Red states steamrolled resistance.
The deportation pipeline works
Operation Tidal Wave in Florida arrested over 10,000 illegal aliens since April 2025.
Add other Florida operations and the state hit nearly 20,000 immigration arrests in 2025 alone.
DHS announced 2 million illegal aliens left the United States in the first 250 days of Trump's second term – 1.6 million self-deported and 400,000 were physically removed.
ICE arrests nationwide more than doubled in 2025 compared to 2024.
Florida went from averaging about 20 ICE arrests per day to 64 per day in 2025.
52% of ICE arrests nationwide happen in cooperating jails in states like Florida and Texas.
The 287(g) program created what Trump promised – a direct pipeline from traffic stops to deportation flights.
Maria Martinez learned this in May 2025 in Sarasota when a traffic stop for an illegal U-turn and driving without a license landed her in federal custody and on a plane to Texas within days.
Her mother paid $500 for the traffic bond.
The ICE hold meant she was gone.
The program Obama killed because it was too effective is the centerpiece of the largest deportation operation in American history.
Democrats can't stop it because sheriffs control their counties and red state governors are ordering them to participate.
Sources:
- Julia Ainsley, "Agreements that allow local police to work with ICE skyrocket," NBC News, February 16, 2026.
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287(g) Immigration and Nationality Act," ICE.gov, accessed February 2026.
- Department of Homeland Security, "DHS Announces New Reimbursement Opportunities for State and Local Law Enforcement Partnering with ICE," DHS.gov, September 3, 2025.
- Ron DeSantis, "Governor Ron DeSantis Highlights Success of Florida-Federal Immigration Partnership," Florida Governor's Office, January 2026.
- Department of Homeland Security, "New Milestone: Over 2 Million Illegal Aliens Out of the United States in Less Than 250 Days," DHS.gov, September 23, 2025.