Gordon formalizes contract between ICE, Highway Patrol
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Highway Patrol has entered an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including collaborating with local sheriffs and assisting in arresting undocumented immigrants.
In a news release sent out Monday, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced that he had formalized a 287(g) agreement between ICE and the WHP.
The program, named for Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, authorizes ICE to partner with state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce certain aspects of U.S. immigration law.
The program allows designated officers to identify and process undocumented immigrants subject to removal, essentially deputizing local law enforcement as immigration officers.
Five county sheriff ’s departments in Wyoming — Campbell, Carbon, Laramie, Natrona and Sweetwater — have entered 287(g) agreements with ICE, and now under this new agreement, the WHP will be assisting them in these contracts.
“Wyoming has been firm in our commitment to helping secure the border, and this is another step in that process,” Gordon said in the news release. “Our nation’s security depends upon effective immigration enforcement, and I am proud that our Wyoming Highway Patrol continues to support this effort and is now formalizing their commitment to this work through our agreement with ICE.”
Like the other 287(g) agreements, the Memorandum of Agreement authorizes the WHP to perform specified immigration officer functions under ICE’s oversight, including taking action and developing evidence against individuals they encounter who are in violation of U.S. immigration laws.
The WHP has entered into a Task Force model agreement, which “serves as a force multiplier for law enforcement agencies to enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties,” according to ICE.
“The signing of this agreement and the Wyoming Highway Patrol joining the 287(g) program is a great force multiplier for my ICE officers in Wyoming,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Denver Field Office Director Robert Guadian. “I applaud the Governor for joining with us to keep Wyoming communities safe.”
Not all groups share Guadian’s certainty that the agreement will keep Wyoming communities safe. In response to Gordon’s announcement on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming’s executive director, Libby Skarin, released a statement reiterating the organization’s opposition to 287(g).
“The federal government has indicated that mass deportations are a priority for the current administration,” Skarin said. “However, what the federal government wants is not what’s best for Wyoming. Compliance with ICE will not improve public safety or protect our state and, in fact, puts politics over the best interests of Wyoming.”
Presidential orders
This movement toward increased collaboration with ICE didn’t come out of nowhere. In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion.
The order directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to assist states and develop 287(g) agreements across the nation.
In line with that order, five Wyoming counties have signed 287(g) agreements and additional counties are looking into the program, according to Gordon.
The Task Force model, which the WHP has now entered into, allows officers to access ICE databases and use them to establish whether individuals are lawfully present. Officers can then take appropriate detention actions under the direction of ICE.
“Our troopers are uniquely positioned to support immigration enforcement through our daily operations along Wyoming’s interstates — key corridors for cross-country travel that are sometimes exploited for unlawful activity,” WHP Administrator Col. Tim Cameron said in the news release.
Working with ICE
According to Cameron, the partnership will strengthen public safety, expand access to federal resources and intelligence and reinforce strong working relationships with local law enforcement.
Opponents of the program, however, point to a history of racial profiling, civil rights abuses and a misuse of local resources.
“We’ve seen around the country that this has led to racial profiling, civil rights abuses and diverts needed resources from state and local law enforcement,” Skarin said. “A culture of suspicion and division in Wyoming serves no one. We are stronger when we find ways to encourage participation and contribution, not ways to divide, exclude and discriminate.”
Discrimination is not the only concern opponents of the program have. There is also a potential financial burden inherent in the program.
The program promises that officers will receive free training, at no additional cost to the participating agencies. However, many law enforcement agencies have abandoned the program in the past, citing financial burdens.
“Volunteering to perform the federal government’s job of enforcing civil immigration law would impose significant costs on your office that would ultimately be borne by your taxpayers,” the ACLU of Wyoming warned local law enforcement in January. “Under the governing federal statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1357(g)(1), ICE is prohibited from covering the costs of such agreements.”
The ACLU warned that local agencies could be responsible for associated overtime costs, travel, housing and a per diem for the training required under the agreement, as well as administrative costs.
The organization pointed to an example in Harris County, Texas, where, in 2017, the sheriff terminated his agreement due to at least $675,000 in annual costs.
MOUs signed by local authorities in Wyoming indicate that ICE will bear the costs that the ACLU mentioned. However, these agreements are new.
This is not the first time the state has directed taxpayer dollars to immigration issues. The 2024 Wyoming Legislature appropriated $750,000 to reimburse Wyoming law enforcement agencies assisting in border law enforcement efforts.
Following requests from Texas in 2023 and 2024, Gordon authorized the deployment of Wyoming law enforcement personnel to provide support along the Mexican border. After the 2024 deployment, the Texas Rangers traveled to Wyoming to train local law enforcement officers.
Managing burdens
Though these programs have been heavily criticized for putting unnecessary pressure on local law enforcement to do ICE’s job and potentially leading to instances of racial profiling, Cameron said he has very few concerns about the agreement.
“This 287(g) Task Force Model is relatively similar to a warrant service where we determine if the individual is wanted under the specific set of criteria that ICE establishes for those troopers that are trained,” Cameron said. “And then we (would) take them to a 287(g) facility, and then we leave, turning them over there to that sheriff ’s office.”
Troopers would only undergo this process in the counties with established 287(g) agreements to lessen the burden on Troopers, Cameron said. Additionally, this process should only be triggered by a trooper observing a violation of Wyoming law, such as speeding or any other violation that would cause the trooper to initiate a traffic stop.
Addressing bias
Cameron is not unaware of the history of abuse in this program, particularly with racial profiling in the Task Force model; however, he expects troopers to follow the WHP unbiased policing policy and not abuse their positions.
“You have to look at what historically has taken place and put measures in place that ensure that that isn’t replicated,” Cameron said. “The confines of the program from ICE are very, very specific, and we will have a very specific policy on how it is implemented.”
The WHP has a non-biased policing policy which directs troopers to “patrol in a proactive manner, to thoroughly investigate suspicious persons and circumstances, and to actively enforce motor vehicle laws, while insisting all people only be stopped or detained when there exists reasonable suspicion to believe they have committed, are committing, or are about to commit an offense.”
The policy is intended to ensure that troopers base their decisions in the field on “sound legal reason, safety for members and all people, and the accepted best practices of modern policing.”
The policy is also meant to protect the WHP from “unwarranted accusations.”
“We’re not stopping people because we believe they look like they have a non-resident alien driver’s license,” Cameron said. “We’re stopping people based on an observed violation of law, which is probable cause to make that stop.”
Should troopers use the 287(g) agreement to racially profile drivers, they would be violating this policy, Cameron said.
“Everything the troopers do, they’re recorded either by the in-car video recorder or by their body-worn camera recorder,” he said. “So if we have a complaint, or if a supervisor makes an inquiry and it’s determined that policy was violated, we take action on that.”
Despite that existing WHP policy, the ACLU’s Skarin reiterated the dangers of 287(g) agreements.
“Instead of imposing the federal government’s wishes upon every community in Wyoming, we encourage local control and support the right of local law enforcement to put the needs of their communities first by declining to participate in unnecessary, voluntary immigration enforcement,” Skarin wrote.
This story was published on July 29, 2025.