The Heavener Police Department is walking away from its agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, just weeks after signing on, following a traffic-enforcement operation that police say didn't go as planned. Police Chief Joshua Butler said the department will no longer participate in any programs tied to ICE or Homeland Security Investigations, a reversal that comes less than two months after the department joined the federal 287(g) task force model.
A Deal Signed in September, Undone in October
According to nwahomepage.com, Heavener signed its ICE Task Force Model agreement on September 2, allowing two HPD officers to accept positions as Department of Homeland Security task force officers. Butler told the outlet the goal was to give the department more resources and investigative capacity, not to single out any group of residents. That plan ran into trouble on October 22, when HPD officers and the task force conducted what the department called traffic-enforcement saturation patrols around Heavener.
The operation led to multiple detentions and several arrests for state-law and local-ordinance violations, Butler said, after reviewing what happened that day. Butler and city leaders agreed that same night to terminate the task force agreements with ICE and Homeland Security, according to 5News, which reported that Butler, the HPD administrator and the city administrator reviewed the October 22 operation together.
Chief Says Intent Was Never to Target the Community
Butler, who became Heavener's police chief in April, said in his statement that it was never his intention, or the department's, to target a particular portion of the community. “My goal and the goal of the Heavener Police Department was to identify and question individuals suspected of committing non-immigration violations,” Butler said, per 5News. He said the department had received several reports of criminal activity unrelated to immigration violations in the months before the patrol, and that the investigation into that activity identified suspects believed to be undocumented immigrants.
Butler said the investigation tied to the saturation patrol remains ongoing and that no further comment would be released at this time, the station's report notes. He also said the task force operation did not end up helping that criminal investigation the way he had hoped. The Heavener Police Department said it will continue to enforce Oklahoma state laws and municipal ordinances, assist federal law enforcement agencies in executing their duties, and serve and protect all residents regardless of race, religion, creed, nationality or preference.
Part of a Fast-Growing Statewide Push
Heavener's brief run with ICE fits into a much larger wave across Oklahoma. Heavener was among eight law enforcement agencies in LeFlore County to sign an agreement with ICE in the prior three months, per the same nwahomepage.com report. Statewide, KOCO reported that Oklahoma logged more than 1,800 immigration-related arrests through 287(g) partnerships between January and July of this year, compared with about 1,200 for all of 2025. Before 2025, only Tulsa, Canadian and Okmulgee counties had such agreements; now at least 112 agencies across the state do, according to KOCO.
KOCO also found that fewer than 20% of people arrested through Oklahoma's 287(g) partnerships had a prior criminal conviction, and only five had prior convictions for violent crimes. Nationally, the Department of Homeland Security has said 287(g) partnerships jumped from 135 agreements to 1,604 since January 2025, as reported by al.com.
Other Agencies Face the Same Choice
Heavener isn't the only Oklahoma department wrestling with these arrangements. The Warr Acres Police Department's 287(g) Task Force Model agreement with ICE took effect September 4, according to Free Press OKC, even as the Oklahoma City Police Department and the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office remain without any active ICE agreement. In Tulsa County, the sheriff signed a 287(g) agreement on July 7 and had nine deputies certified since the signing, six from the Drug Interdiction Unit and three serving as Homeland Security task force officers, per the Tulsa Flyer.
Elsewhere, the reversal Heavener just made has precedent. In Alabama, the Anniston Police Department withdrew from the federal 287(g) program in August, with the city saying it had not identified a demonstrated local need to continue, al.com reported. Heavener's about-face suggests the calculus around these agreements can shift quickly once a department puts them to the test on the ground.
