Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced Wednesday that his office has entered into a formal Section 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he wants all 92 of the state's county sheriffs to do the same. The partnership expands the legal authority of investigators within Rokita's office to assist in federal immigration enforcement and deportation operations, according to the announcement.
“Partnering with federal law enforcement is a key part of how we deport illegal aliens under the FAIRNESS Act, which we helped write and support,” Rokita said, according to wbiw.com. The agreement allows designated investigators in his office to receive federal training and work directly alongside ICE agents, and Rokita's office says it helped write and support Indiana's FAIRNESS Act, which strengthened the state's anti-sanctuary policies, mandated local compliance with ICE detainer requests, and gave the Attorney General's office expanded authority to pursue civil actions against municipalities that impede federal immigration enforcement, as first reported by WIBC 93.1 FM.
Rokita didn't stop at his own office's deal. “Every county sheriff across the state should be — and can be — doing what we're doing, and what sheriffs across the nation are doing,” he said, per the same wbiw.com report. He went further, saying “The Indiana Sheriffs' Association should be working to make sure all 92 offices are in this program.”
How Many Sheriffs Have Actually Signed On?
Here the numbers get murky. Rokita's statement said “only six of our 92 sheriffs have signed an agreement like this,” framing the gap as a missed opportunity for local public safety, according to wishtv.com. But the ACLU of Indiana offered a different count that same day, stating there are seven sheriff's offices with active 287(g) pacts, specifically in Blackford, Dearborn, Hamilton, Jasper, Noble, Rush, and Spencer counties. The dossier does not clarify whether the two tallies rely on the same reporting date or dataset, so both figures are presented here as reported.
Beyond sheriffs specifically, the picture widens further. The ACLU of Indiana also said law enforcement agencies from 29 Indiana counties have made similar agreements with ICE, per wishtv.com. Separately, IndyStar reported that Rokita's office joins about 40 other Indiana agencies that already collaborate with ICE under the agreement.
What These Partnerships Actually Allow
Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows the federal government to delegate specific immigration enforcement authority to state and local law enforcement officers, authorizing ICE to hand off specified immigration-officer functions to trained local officers under its direction and oversight, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Certified agreements can allow trained local officers to conduct interrogations regarding immigration status, issue immigration detainers, and process individuals for removal while they're held in local custody.
There are actually three distinct models in play across the state. The Task Force Model lets designated local officers exercise limited federal immigration authority while carrying out ordinary police duties outside the jail, according to a review by B Square Bulletin. The Jail Enforcement Model allows officers to identify and process people ICE considers removable who have pending or active criminal charges, while the Warrant Service Officer model permits designated officers to serve and execute ICE administrative warrants on people already in local custody. Officers working under the Task Force Model must complete a 40-hour online course covering immigration law, civil-rights law, and complaint procedures, the outlet's review found.
A September 5 review of ICE data cited by the same outlet found 45 separate 287(g) agreements involving 42 Indiana state or local agencies, with 36 using the Task Force Model, six using the Warrant Service Officer model, and three using the Jail Enforcement Model. That growth has been fast: as of May 1, 2026, 31 Indiana agencies had signed up for the program, including 17 that joined that year alone, according to Fox 59.
Funding, Local Costs and Pushback
Rokita argued the agreements come at no added expense and don't pull resources away from local policing. “Agreements like these do not take away from local law enforcement; they only add to their ability to keep communities safe,” he said, adding that 287(g) partnerships open up opportunities for local departments to obtain federal funding that could help enhance public safety and potentially ease local property tax burdens. He also encouraged residents to press their local elected law enforcement officials if their department hasn't partnered with ICE.
Not every rollout has come without local scrutiny. In Waterloo, the town council voted on May 12 to approve an ICE participation agreement, with the marshal's office listed in ICE's dataset as signing the following day, per the B Square Bulletin's review. Elsewhere, the Whitestown Police Department partnered with ICE for a three- to four-hour enforcement operation within town limits in the summer of 2025, according to the Fox 59 investigation. ICE has said it arrested more than 400 undocumented immigrants following a five-day operation in Indiana earlier this month, according to 21Alive News.
Whether the Indiana Sheriffs' Association will act on Rokita's call remains to be seen, and the state's overall participation figures continue to shift depending on which agency or advocacy group is counting. For now, the six-versus-seven sheriff discrepancy and the broader 29-county tally leave Hoosiers without a single, agreed-upon picture of just how far 287(g) has already spread across Indiana.
