What Are 287(g) Agreements, and Why Does Every Florida County Have One?
When people talk about local police "working with ICE" in Florida, they are usually talking about 287(g) agreements. The name comes from a section of federal immigration law, and in Florida, state lawmakers have made taking part close to mandatory.
A 1996 law, a 2002 start
Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act lets U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sign agreements that deputize state and local officers to carry out certain immigration duties. Congress added it through the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. According to the Congressional Research Service, the first agreement did not take effect until 2002, after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The different models
Agreements come in several forms:
Jail enforcement: Trained officers screen people already booked into a local jail, question them about immigration status and can issue ICE detainers, as the American Immigration Council describes it.
Warrant service officer: Created in 2019, this narrower model lets jail officers serve ICE administrative warrants on people already in custody, after roughly one day of training, per CRS.
Task force: Officers can question and arrest people over suspected immigration violations during everyday policing. The Obama administration phased it out, with the last agreements expiring at the end of 2012, and the Trump administration revived it in 2025, the Immigration Council reports. WUSF noted that the earlier street-level version ended after Justice Department investigations found racial profiling.
How Florida law pushed cooperation
In 2019, Florida's governor signed SB 168, which took effect July 1 of that year. The enrolled text bans "sanctuary policies," requires agencies to use their best efforts to support federal immigration enforcement, directs jails to honor qualifying detainers and requires county jails to reach housing agreements with federal immigration authorities.
A 2022 law, SB 1808, went further, requiring every agency that runs a county detention facility to sign an agreement with ICE. In February 2025, a special-session bill, SB 2-C, created a State Board of Immigration Enforcement, and its enrolled text requires that board to approve ending the agreements that sheriffs and county jails are required to hold. City police departments are not required to sign, but state law tells them to use their best efforts to support federal immigration enforcement.
How many Florida agencies take part
Florida's sheriffs announced on Feb. 24, 2025, that all 67 counties had signed 287(g) agreements. At the June 30, 2026, meeting of the State Immigration Enforcement Council, which advises the board, 272 of 394 Florida agencies held task force agreements, according to a council summary reported by WUSF, and 109 of those had not yet made a 287(g) arrest. That figure comes from state data, not from ICE, which counts agreements rather than agencies. WUSF reported that Florida leads the nation in 287(g) agreements, largely because state law requires sheriffs to take part.
How we reported this: This explainer was drafted with AI assistance from the sources linked above, and every fact was checked against those sources. See an error? Contact us and we'll correct it.
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