AILSA CHANG, HOST:
There's a program that deputizes local police to help ICE with immigration enforcement. It's known as 287(g), and it's been growing fast ever since President Trump returned to office. More than 1,700 local law enforcement agencies are now participating. And the Department of Homeland Security, as well as some states, are offering big money to local police to sign 287(g) agreements. NPR's Meg Anderson has been looking into this and joins us now. Hi, Meg.
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: Hi.
CHANG: OK. So what exactly does the federal government promise to these local law enforcement agencies in exchange for their help on immigration enforcement?
ANDERSON: Yeah. In short, a lot. Agencies that sign on to the most intensive version of the program get the most. That's called the Task Force Model.
CHANG: OK.
ANDERSON: And it gives local police the power to arrest people they suspect are in the country illegally. And that ultimately helps the Trump administration with its deportation goals. Excuse me. DHS has promised local police that sign on that it will fully reimburse the salaries and benefits of officers who participate. And they're also offering the potential for officer bonuses based on how many undocumented people they find - almost like a bounty hunter system. And on top of that, each agency gets $100,000 for new vehicles and potentially tens of thousands more in equipment. FWD.us, an organization that advocates for immigration reform, recently tried to add up how much money ICE has promised agencies collectively and found that it could be as much as $2 billion this year alone.
CHANG: Wow. And as we mentioned, some states are adding funding to this effort, right? Do we have a sense of how much money states have promised local police agencies?
ANDERSON: Yeah. So Florida and Texas have the most agreements by far. They both - both of those states have required all sheriffs to join 287(g), and they're offering their own grant programs, too. And together, they've awarded tens of millions of dollars so far. In Florida, state records show departments plan to use that money for things like body armor, license plate readers, fingerprint scanners. And you can imagine, you know, for some police departments, that money could be really enticing.
CHANG: Absolutely. OK. That's state money. Do we know how much money DHS has actually given out so far?
ANDERSON: Yeah. I would say we have snapshots. We know, for instance, that police agencies in Florida have received nearly $40 million from DHS so far. But that was back in September, and we really haven't heard much since. I spoke with Felicity Rose about that. She's with the group FWD.us.
FELICITY ROSE: For other kinds of money going out to local law enforcement from the federal government, that is tracked extremely closely. It goes through a transparent process. It's very, very concerning that there's so little transparency in this money.
ANDERSON: She also noted that these new grants could end up being two or even three times the size of the current largest federal grant programs that go to local police. So it's a big deal that we don't have a lot of insight into them.
CHANG: Yeah.
ANDERSON: I did reach out to DHS, and in a statement, the agency called the partnerships, quote, "critical to having the resources" to arrest undocumented people but didn't provide much more information than that.
CHANG: Well, if there's not a lot of information from DHS itself - I'm curious - like, what were you able to find out from local police, local sheriffs?
ANDERSON: Yeah. So my colleague Jaclyn Diaz and I reached out to dozens of police and sheriff's departments. Most did not respond, but we did speak to law enforcement leaders at six agencies, including the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office in Florida. They were awarded nearly half a million dollars collectively from the state and the federal government. Chief Deputy Randy Tifft told me that money will go to a new vehicle and just also toward the cost of holding immigrants for ICE.
RANDY TIFFT: It's expensive to house somebody in our jail. You have to feed them. You have to provide medical to them if they need it. So it would be very difficult for us to do what we do without getting reimbursed.
ANDERSON: Tifft and other police leaders I spoke to emphasized that their officers are not going out of their way to look for undocumented people, but immigrant advocates tell me that they worry that's exactly what's happening.
CHANG: Do we have evidence that local police are targeting people who might be immigrants, though?
ANDERSON: Yeah. So the ACLU has documented cases of what they describe as, quote, "dragnet" traffic stops. And there's some evidence of this sort of thing happening in the past. The Task Force Model of 287(g) was initially discontinued back in 2012 after the Justice Department found evidence of racial profiling.
CHANG: That is NPR's Meg Anderson. Thank you, Meg.
ANDERSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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