Texas House preliminarily approves mandating sheriffs departments assist federal authorities in immigration enforcement
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Texas House members gave the first approval on a bill that would require sheriffs departments around the state to partner with federal authorities on immigration enforcement, but a last-minute floor amendment severely narrowed the type of help local law enforcement would have to give.
The original Senate Bill 8 passed out of the higher chamber in April and it would have mandated sheriffs offices in counties with a population above 100,000 to enter into an agreement with Immigration Customs and Enforcement’s (ICE) 287(g) program.
The 287(g) program allows non-federal law enforcement members to assume some ICE duties. There are three different models underneath the program:
- Jail Enforcement – allows officers to question people to determine immigration status, put their information into a Homeland Security database, take statements and begin the deportation process with an immigration detainer and notice to appear.
- Warrant Service Officer – a narrower scope than jail enforcement, with officers identifying people as non-citizens during the booking process, referring those people to ICE for evaluation and possible deportation, and serving ICE administrative warrants on people in their custody, according to the ACLU.
- Task Force Model – described by ICE as a “force multiplier,” allowing local officers to enforce immigration laws during their routine duties in the community.
The number of 287(g) agreements soared across the country after President Donald Trump won re-election in November, campaigning on a promise to deport undocumented people from the country.
However, State Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, changed the requirements. His amendment on the floor would require any county in the state that operates a jail — or contracts a vendor to operate a jail — to enter into a warrant service model agreement with ICE. Counties do have the option to enter into an agreement with the other two models as well in the 287(g) program.
The original bill, authored by State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, would provide a state-funded grant program to help counties under one million in population to pay for the training associated with joining the program. Counties over the one million threshold would be required to fund it from their own budget.
“It’s time for Texas to take a very bold and powerful stance against criminal aliens and illegal immigration,” Schwertner explained. He said the goal of the program is to get criminals out of Texas communities.
But Spiller’s amendment would actually provide a grant program that would pay out between $5,000 and $40,000. The amount of funding would depend on population size and would even provide money to counties with more than a million people.
Concerns over 287(g)
Critics of the bill call it an unfunded mandate and a racist bill that would erode trust with the local law enforcement and minority communities.
Groups like the Workers Defense Action Fund (WDAF) protested inside the Capitol rotunda on Saturday morning. David Chincanchan, the policy director for WDAF, explained he feels the 287(g) program leads to racial profiling.
“It would prevent our local sheriffs from being able to focus on keeping the community safe, on serving the needs of their constituents, and instead, it would force them to act in the role of essentially ICE agents, and it would force them to be complicit in the separation of families in our own neighborhoods,” Chincanchan said.
During the House floor debate, one of the biggest concerns centered on jail space. Under the warrant service officer model, county jails would have to hold onto undocumented people until ICE can pick them up.
State Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., D-Fort Worth, argued the state is facing overcrowding in its jails. “We have a problem with ICE not picking these folks up. Are you not concerned with the conditions and the safety?” Romero Jr. asked Spiller during the debate.
Spiller alluded to conversations with stakeholders that ICE is ready to step in with picking undocumented people from local jails. “ICE is ramping up and attempting to cooperate more with Texas, waiting on this bill to be passed so that we can have better cooperation and a more efficient operation,” Spiller said.
The original bill also faced criticism from local sheriff’s offices who were worried about the cost of the program. It would require sending a deputy or correctional officer out-of-state to get trained for about a month, creating a burden on departments that have a lack of staffing to begin with.
Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne, who serves as Legislative Chairman for the Sheriff’s Association of Texas, testified on that fact in March during a committee hearing.
“We think that financial relief portion shouldn’t be in a grant program, it should just be a part of the program,” Hawthorne testified. “And it should cover all 254 counties that get into the program.”
Hawthorne said it costs $10,000 to train each officer in his department.
Calhoun County Sheriff Bobbie Vickery shares the same concerns. His county of about 25,000 people joined the 287(g) program in 2017 and said it “works very well,” but he, too worried about the cost. “This could potentially put a very harsh monetary strain on our budgets every year,” Vickery testified.
When asked about opponents to his legislation, Schwertner said, “I ask them if they want criminal aliens running around and causing violence and crime against citizens that they know, Texans they know, and I would hope their answer would be no.”
What’s next?
The bill will need to be approved one final time by the full House before it can be sent back to the Senate for approval. If the Senate does not concur with the changes the House made, it will go into a closed-door negotiation with members from both chambers.
If approved and signed by the Governor, the bill would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
