Fort Worth police confirmed over the weekend that agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were operating in the city, after reports surfaced that officers had been stationed outside commercial areas in the Riverside neighborhood near Sylvania and McLemore avenues. Video footage showed at least four ICE agents leaving a taqueria parking lot, and residents say community members confronted the officers before they left the area.
The reports began circulating on social media Saturday, according to the Fort Worth Report, which first confirmed the department's response. Fort Worth police told the outlet that ICE agents were in the city over the weekend but stressed that the Fort Worth Police Department does not conduct or direct ICE operations. City council member Carlos Flores said agents were seeking specific individuals rather than conducting broad enforcement sweeps, a characterization echoed by council member Daniel Segura, who said the occurrence was not random.
Council member Jeanette Martinez also confirmed ICE was present in the city. Riverside, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood northeast of downtown, saw community members push back directly against the agents stationed there, according to Jeanette Martinez for Fort Worth City Council District 11 describing the encounter.
City Officials Say Their Hands Are Tied
Sana Syed, a city spokesperson quoted in the Fort Worth Report's account, said ICE is a federal law enforcement agency that is not required to notify or seek authorization from the city manager's office before operating within city limits. ICE itself did not answer requests for comment from the paper, and local law enforcement officials deferred further questions to the federal agency. Mayor Mattie Parker did not return a request for comment, and the office of council member Jay Chapa said it had no additional information beyond what police had already provided.
Segura asked residents not to interfere with ICE officers or their operations. At the same time, Martinez advised residents stopped by ICE agents to know their rights and to document the interaction if it is safe to do so, and urged people to stay safe and follow traffic laws. The Fort Worth Police Department's general orders specify that city officers do not enforce civil immigration law on the street and do not arrest people solely for undocumented status, a boundary the department has maintained even as federal activity increases, per prior reporting from KERA News.
Where the County Jail Fits In
That civil-enforcement line matters because Tarrant County's role runs through a different channel: the county jail. The Tarrant County Sheriff's Office has partnered with ICE through the 287(g) Jail Enforcement Model since 2017, according to the Fort Worth Report, and Chief Deputy Laurie Passman said the sheriff's office involvement with ICE is limited to corrections-facility operations. Under that program, deputies screen the immigration status of people booked into the county jail, and ICE officials can then detain undocumented individuals identified through that screening — a separate pipeline from the street-level activity reported in Riverside.
As of February, the sheriff's office held 388 jail inmates with active ICE detainers, according to KERA News. Booking records reviewed by WBAP covering January 1 through August 3 show that 278 defendants booked with ICE detainers were tied to 480 criminal charges, with roughly half involving violent or sexual offenses — figures local officials have cited when defending the jail-based partnership.
A State Mandate Pushing Wider Cooperation
The jail partnership is also being reshaped by state law. Texas Senate Bill 8, signed in 2025 and effective January 1, requires every Texas sheriff who runs a county jail to enter into a 287(g) agreement with ICE by December 1, according to Texas Scorecard. A companion grant program from the Texas Comptroller, launched in January, makes counties with populations over 1 million — including Tarrant County — eligible for $140,000 in state funding to offset the non-reimbursed costs of running those agreements.
Texas now accounts for roughly 20% of all active 287(g) agreements nationwide, with 299 agreements across 241 agencies in 186 counties as of February, according to Texas Public Radio. Notably, city council members had not formally discussed how Fort Worth should approach local immigration enforcement as of 2025, and Flores and Martinez have not supported a city partnership with ICE.
Know Your Rights Advice Circulates Again
Amid the uncertainty, advocates are repeating guidance that has surfaced during past enforcement waves in Tarrant County. The National Immigration Law Center said all immigrants have legal rights regardless of immigration status and advised carrying a know-your-rights card. Residents have the right to remain silent and not answer questions from ICE agents, and immigrants should remain silent when being arrested while still carrying proof of immigration status and showing it to law enforcement when stopped.
The current scope of ICE's operations in Fort Worth remains unclear, and it is not known when or whether agents will return to the Riverside area. The episode follows months of heightened local tension around federal immigration enforcement, including the sentencing this summer of 16 people — among them a 100-year term for the primary shooter — for last year's July 4 attack on the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in nearby Alvarado, according to WFAA.
According to Hoodline, Fort Worth has also seen its own local flashpoints this year, including the case of a Texas Christian University student deported after his arrest in Arlington, and countywide student walkouts in January across Fort Worth ISD campuses, where the student body is nearly 70% Latino. Both moments reflected the same anxiety now surfacing again in Riverside, where residents say they were simply trying to understand who was watching their neighborhood, and why.
