Trump is pushing 287(g) deputization to 1,000+ agencies as states split over compliance

While the federal government arrests immigrants at record pace, states are racing in opposite directions on immigration enforcement. Republican-led states like Tennessee, Florida, and Texas are passing laws that require local police to act as de facto immigration agents — and some are making it a felony for local officials who refuse. Democratic-led states including Illinois, Minnesota, and California are expanding protections for immigrant residents, creating legal safe zones around schools, churches, and hospitals, and suing to block Trump administration funding threats.

The core constitutional question is whether the federal government can force states to enforce federal immigration law — and the answer from courts has repeatedly been no. The anti-commandeering doctrine, established in Printz v. United States (1997), says the federal government can't conscript state and local officials into enforcing federal programs. But the Trump administration is testing that limit by threatening to cut billions in federal funding from jurisdictions that don't cooperate with ICE, and by pursuing criminal prosecution of officials in sanctuary cities.

By September 2025, the Department of Homeland Security had signed more than 1,000 Section 287(g) agreements deputizing local law enforcement to perform immigration functions — up from roughly 150 at the end of the Biden administration. Courts have repeatedly blocked the administration's funding threats, ruling them unconstitutional coercion, but the legal battles continue.