More Tennessee law enforcement agencies enter partnerships with ICE

More local Tennessee law enforcement agencies are signing partnerships to enforce immigration law. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

The number of local law enforcement agencies in Tennessee that have entered partnerships with the federal government to enforce immigration law has risen to 54.

In recent weeks, sheriff’s departments in Hancock, Lincoln, Madison, Marion, Van Buren and Unicoi counties have signed onto so-called 287(g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, according to a federal database.

These largely rural counties join a growing list of Tennessee police, sheriffs and constable districts entering into such agreements. Two state agencies – the Department of Correction and Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which operates the Highway Patrol – have also partnered with ICE to crack down on immigration violations in Tennessee, where immigrants without legal status are estimated to represent 2.2% of the population.

Tennessee is among the states seeing the most rapid proliferation of the immigration agreements since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Tennessee partnerships with ICE multiply as feds offer $14B in incentives nationwide

Local law enforcement entities may enter into one of three separate tiers of cooperative agreements with the federal government.

They include a “jail enforcement” model that gives local officials the authority to investigate the immigration status of individuals who are already incarcerated. Tennessee law already requires local jails to cooperate with ICE to verify the immigration status of individuals coming into custody.

The “warrant service officer” agreement allows jailers to make arrests on behalf of ICE of individuals already in custody.  

A “task force” model gives local and state law enforcement officers the authority to make immigration arrests as part of their day-to-day policing.  It is the most expansive delegation of immigration enforcement powers of the three models.

Thus far 19 Tennessee counties and the Tennessee Highway Patrol have entered into task force agreements.  

Gov. Bill Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly have offered incentives for partnerships through  $5 million in grants to participating agencies.

The federal government has also offered what it characterized as ‘unprecedented reimbursement opportunities’ to participating agencies.

The reimbursements include salary, benefits and overtime reimbursements for each trained officer, laptops, cell phones, up to $100,000 toward the purchase of agency vehicles and bonuses ranging from $500 to $1000 per officer for the “successful location of illegal aliens provided by ICE and overall assistance to further ICE’s mission to Defend the Homeland.”