MINNEAPOLIS — Eight Minnesota law enforcement agencies have signed agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allow specially trained local officers to perform certain federal immigration enforcement functions, though two counties say their agreements are no longer valid.
The agreements are part of ICE’s 287(g) program, named for the section of federal immigration law that allows the agency to delegate specified immigration enforcement duties to state and local law enforcement officers under ICE supervision.
The Minnesota agencies that have signed agreements are the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office, Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, Isle Police Department, Itasca County Sheriff’s Office, Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office, Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office and Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office.
Together, they are located in seven counties because both the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office and Isle Police Department operate in Mille Lacs County.
Crow Wing County has signed agreements under two different 287(g) models.
The agreements do not all give local officers the same authority. ICE currently operates three models.
Under the Task Force Model, designated local officers may exercise limited federal immigration authority while performing routine law enforcement duties or participating in operations with ICE.
The Warrant Service Officer model authorizes designated officers to serve and execute ICE administrative warrants on people already in their agency’s custody.
The Jail Enforcement Model allows trained officers working in a jail or correctional setting to identify and process people who may be subject to removal from the United States.
In Minnesota, the agencies and models are:
- Cass County Sheriff’s Office: Task Force Model
- Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office: Task Force Model and Warrant Service Officer
- Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office: Warrant Service Officer
- Isle Police Department: Task Force Model
- Itasca County Sheriff’s Office: Task Force Model
- Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office: Warrant Service Officer
- Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office: Task Force Model
- Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office: Jail Enforcement Model
The status of some of the agreements has become complicated by a dispute over whether Minnesota sheriffs have the authority to enter them without approval from their county boards.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office issued a formal legal opinion in December concluding that Minnesota sheriffs do not have the authority to enter 287(g) agreements with ICE on their own.
The opinion, requested by Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, found that county boards of commissioners may enter such agreements under Minnesota’s Joint Exercise of Powers Act. It also concluded that a 287(g) agreement does not give local law enforcement broader detention authority under state law and does not permit officers to hold someone solely on an ICE civil immigration detainer if Minnesota law otherwise requires the person’s release.
Cass and Itasca counties subsequently said their agreements were no longer valid because their county boards had not approved them.
Cass County Administrator Josh Stevenson told KAXE in January that county officials considered the sheriff’s agreement “null and void” following the attorney general’s opinion and that there were no plans to bring it before the county board.
Itasca County Sheriff Joe Dasovich similarly told the station that his department’s agreement had never been approved by the Itasca County Board and that he had no plans to seek approval.
Freeborn County took a different route.
Sheriff Ryan Shea signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE in March 2025 without prior approval from the Freeborn County Board. After Ellison challenged the authority of sheriffs to enter such agreements on their own, county commissioners unanimously approved a resolution ratifying the agreement.
Four Freeborn County taxpayers subsequently sued the county, challenging the agreement under Minnesota law. A federal judge in May sent the case back to state court without deciding whether the agreement itself was legal.
Crow Wing County, meanwhile, has agreements under both the Task Force and Warrant Service Officer models. The sheriff’s office has continued cooperating with federal immigration authorities despite the attorney general’s opinion.
The Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office participates under the Task Force Model, while Isle Police Department, a municipal agency in the same county, has a separate Task Force Model agreement. Isle Police Chief Mark Reichel said earlier this year that ICE encouraged his department to join the program.
The Minnesota agreements are part of a rapid nationwide expansion of the 287(g) program under President Donald Trump.
An executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office directed federal immigration authorities to expand agreements authorizing qualified state and local officers to perform immigration enforcement functions “to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
ICE has since mounted an aggressive recruitment effort aimed at local law enforcement agencies. Its 287(g) website includes information for sheriffs and police chiefs interested in joining the program and even guidance titled, “How Can I Convince My Chief or Sheriff to Participate in 287(g)?”
ICE reported 2,462 agreements nationwide covering 39 states and two U.S. territories as of Sept. 4. The total included 1,733 Task Force Model agreements, 549 Warrant Service Officer agreements and 180 Jail Enforcement Model agreements.
The agency also releases monthly reports highlighting people encountered by participating 287(g) agencies. Its August report featured cases from around the country but none from Minnesota.
ICE cautions, however, that the cases included in the monthly report are only a sampling of encounters and not a comprehensive list of activity by participating agencies.
The 287(g) program is separate from federal immigration enforcement operations such as Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. Under 287(g), local or state officers receive specified federal immigration authority through formal agreements with ICE. Federal operations such as Metro Surge are conducted by federal immigration officers, whether or not local agencies participate in 287(g).
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