When President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January, Michigan had zero law enforcement agencies with voluntary 287(g) agreements to work with federal immigration enforcement.
This week, the Metro Police Authority of Genesee County became the sixth agency in the Great Lakes State to join the program approved by Congress as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, signed into law by former Democratic President Bill Clinton.
The act allows federal immigration officials to delegate some enforcement authorities to local law enforcement agencies through three different models: Task Force, Jail Enforcement, and Warrant Service Officer.
“I thought it made sense for our agency because we have a very large transient population,” Metro Police Chief Matthew Blade told WSMH. “We have a lot of expressway miles, hotels, big box stores, a lot of retail.”
While the task force model agreement allows local officers to train in immigration enforcement and to detain illegal immigrants who commit crimes, Blade made it clear his department is “not going to participate in just immigration enforcement.”
“The negative comments I have seen, the people issuing those statements are under the belief that we are going to, as the Metro Police Authority, go seek out people who may be undocumented immigrants in our area and make arrests,” he told WSMH. “That’s not what we’re going to do. That’s not part of the program that we are going to be part of.”
“We are not joining task forces to go out and conduct raids, or anything like that is not going to happen,” Blade told WJRT.
The agreement has met objections from the Michigan Immigrants Rights Center, which has spoken out against other law enforcement agencies that joined the 287(g) program this year, as well.
“It’s really disappointing to see communities take this step,” Christine Sauve, a spokeswoman for the center, told the news site. “We would hope communities move in the other direction trying to strengthen trust and partnerships with immigrant communities.”
In Taylor, the city’s police department signed on in May to partner with ICE under the task force model, which was discontinued under President Barack Obama but reinstated by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, when he launched the largest deportation effort in U.S. history on the first day of his second term.
“They are simply asking us to do the most basic thing: that when we come across somebody who’s in this country illegally after they have committed some sort of criminal offense, we notify them,” Taylor Police Chief John Blair told WJBK.
“We aren’t kicking in doors or searching for illegal immigrants,” he said. “If you are arrested for a criminal offense, we must identify you. If in the lawful process of identifying you it is determined you are in the country illegally, we will contact ICE. That is what we do, and that is what we will continue to do.”
Other law enforcement agencies signed up for the program include the Roscommon County Sheriff’s Office, Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, Berrian County Sheriff’s Office, and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, according to an ICE list of participating agencies.
“As of July 22, 2025 7:52 am, ICE has signed 832 Memorandums of Agreement for 287(g) programs covering 40 states. These include JEM agreements with 117 law enforcement agencies in 26 states, 287(g) WSO agreements with 300 law enforcement agencies in 35 states, and 287(g) TFM agreements with 415 agencies in 31 states,” according to ICE.
That’s nearly double the total from April, when data cited by the Midland Daily News showed ICE had 444 agreements in place.
A recent Boarder Brief factsheet from the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security highlights U.S. Customs and Border Protection data for March that illustrates the drastic turnaround in immigration enforcement since Trump took office.
The data shows apprehensions along the southern border have declined by 95%, from 137,473 in March 2024 to 7,181 in March 2025, while border encounters nationwide are down 88%, from 189,359 to 11,017 over the same time frame.
In the first 50 days of the second Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement made 32,809 arrests, which included 1,155 criminal gang members and 39 known or suspected terrorists.
“This is roughly equal to all of Fiscal Year 2024 under President Biden,” according to the Committee on Homeland Security.
