Federal funding and 287(g) partnerships drove a summer surge in immigration arrests

# What changed this summer

This summer saw immigration arrests in the United States climb to their highest levels since President Donald Trump returned to office. The increase coincided with an unprecedented expansion of 287(g) partnerships, in which state and local law enforcement work with federal immigration authorities.

# Scale of the expansion

Before President Trump took office in January 2025, there were 135 287(g) agreements. As of Oct. 1, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security reported 2,608 agreements. Local or state agencies in 38 states now have agreements, with the largest concentrations in Texas and Florida. Only 12 states have no 287(g) agreements: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

ICE arrest totals rose sharply in summer 2026: roughly 43,000 arrests in June, 49,000 in July, and nearly 51,000 in August. Government reporting does not always distinguish whether an arrest began as a local-law-enforcement stop or a federal action. Independent analysis attributed at least 6,150 arrests in July to 287(g)-related activity — about 12.5% of that month's total — according to the Deportation Data Project.

# How 287(g) works and which model grew most

The 287(g) partnership program, created in federal law in 1996 and funded sporadically since 2006, operates through three models:

• Jail enforcement model: deputized officers can ask about immigration status and hold noncitizens for ICE pickup for up to 48 hours.

• Task force model: the most expansive. Local officers are deputized to ask about immigration status, detain people for ICE, and otherwise perform immigration duties.

The Trump administration revived the task force model — which the Obama administration had discontinued in 2012 over profiling concerns — and that model has seen the largest growth among the three.

# Money and local incentives

Federal reimbursements and grant eligibility changed the calculus for many agencies. The Wall Street Journal reported the Florida Highway Patrol was eligible for $26 million in reimbursements for arrests during a three-month period in spring and early summer 2026. Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former DHS official, said federal money removed previous financial barriers that had made partnerships voluntary.

Analysts link the funding increase to the arrests surge. Ariel G. Ruiz Soto of the Migration Policy Institute noted a likely connection between the growth in 287(g) agreements, particularly in Texas and Florida, and rising arrests in summer months.

# Local reaction and legal limits

# What to watch next

• Whether federal reimbursements continue and how local budgets respond.
• How states without agreements maintain their limits or face pressure to join.
• Legal and political pushback at local and state levels over task force deployments.

Overall, the combination of large federal allocations and revived task force partnerships produced rapid, measurable growth in local participation in federal immigration enforcement and a corresponding surge in recorded arrests over the summer of 2026.