AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Among Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s top priorities this legislative session is “requiring local law enforcement to assist the Federal Government’s deportation efforts.” The bill filed to achieve his goal was left pending in the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday.
Forced cooperation between counties and ICE
Senate Bill 8 (SB 8) — filed by State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown — would require all Texas counties with 100,000 or more people to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) 287(g) program.
There are three versions of the program; the ‘Jail Enforcement Model,’ the ‘Warrant Service Officer’ model and the ‘Task Force Model.’ The first two train officers to identify and put a detention retainer for unlawful residents booked into their jails. The ‘Task Force Model’ is a step up, allowing local law enforcement officers to act on behalf of ICE (in a limited capacity) during their normal day-to-day patrol.
For example, one of the duties listed under the ‘Task Force Model’s’ mock agreement is “The power and authority to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his
right to be or remain in the United States… and to process for immigration violations those individuals who have been arrested for State or Federal criminal offenses.”
According to ICE records, 36 Texas counties are already part of the program with six more in the process of implementing it. Of the 40 counties who would be required to participate (based on 2020 census data), only 10 currently do.
An expensive agreement
During the committee hearing, detractors of the program kept highlighting how expensive the program could be to enter, with Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne saying it would cost $10,000 for each officer in his program.
SB 8 would partially take the financial burden off most counties by starting a grant program. Counties would be granted money proportionally based on their population and how many counties applied for the grant.
However, SB 8 would force counties with more than a million people — Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis and Collin as of the 2020 census — to pay their own way.
“From (the Sheriff’s Association of Texas) we’re really worried about unfunded mandates,” Hawthorne, who also acts as the Legislative Chairman for the Sheriff’s Association of Texas, said while testifying in support of the bill. “We think that financial relief portion shouldn’t be in a grant program, it should just be a part of the program. And it should cover all 254 counties that get into the program.”
Schwertner doubled down on the way his bill would fund the program.
“This would be an unfunded mandate for (counties over a million people) but what are they spending their money on already,” he said. “Look at the line items, look at the budgets of the counties — Dallas County, Harris County — DEI officers, etc?”
Is it needed?
According to Texas law, local law enforcement agencies already have to cooperate with ICE.
“We do not know of a Sheriff right now who does not cooperate with ICE,” Hawthorne said. “Sheriffs are committed to the public safety side of things.”
Additionally, ICE data shows encounters at or near the southern border have dropped significantly in the first two months of 2025, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s second term. In February 2025, ICE encountered 11,709 migrants at the southwest land border — less than 16 times fewer than in February 2024, when 189,913 encounters were documented.
