Rokita Joins Forces With ICE, Calls on Indiana’s 92 Sheriffs to Follow

ICE MAN

Indiana Attorney General signs 287(g) agreement giving state investigators a larger role in federal immigration enforcement

By Hoosier Enquirer Staff

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is putting his own office directly into the state's expanding partnership with federal immigration authorities, signing an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that will allow designated state investigators to work alongside ICE on immigration enforcement.

Rokita announced Wednesday that his office has entered the federal 287(g) program, which permits ICE to delegate specified immigration-enforcement functions to trained state and local officers under federal supervision.

The attorney general isn't stopping with his own office. He is calling on all 92 Indiana county sheriffs to enter similar agreements, arguing that Indiana is missing an opportunity when only a handful currently participate.

“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 in announcing the agreement. He said the partnership gives his investigators greater ability to work directly with ICE.

The announcement represents another step in Indiana's increasingly close cooperation with federal immigration enforcement under Gov. Mike Braun and President Donald Trump's administration.

Indiana already has dozens of state and local agencies participating in some form of ICE's 287(g) program. The number has grown dramatically: reporting earlier this month found 39 Indiana agencies participating as of Sept. 2, compared with 14 at the end of 2025.

The program itself has several forms.

Under ICE's Task Force Model, appropriately trained state or local officers can exercise limited immigration authority during their regular law-enforcement duties. The Jail Enforcement Model allows trained officers in detention facilities to identify and process potentially removable noncitizens already in custody. A third arrangement, the Warrant Service Officer Model, trains local officers to execute ICE administrative warrants inside participating jails.

Rokita's announcement does not mean his office independently decides who gets deported. Immigration enforcement remains governed by federal law, and removal proceedings can involve ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and federal immigration courts depending upon the circumstances of an individual case.

But a 287(g) agreement gives participating state and local officers powers they would not otherwise possess to perform specified federal immigration functions under ICE supervision.

That distinction makes Wednesday's agreement consequential.

Rokita has already made immigration enforcement a major initiative of the Attorney General's Office. His office has pursued litigation involving the sheriffs of Monroe and St. Joseph counties over cooperation with federal immigration authorities and has also sued Indianapolis Public Schools over immigration-related policies.

The new agreement moves his office from demanding cooperation from other Indiana institutions to participating directly.

It also dovetails with Indiana's new FAIRNESS Act, which took effect July 1. The law created additional state-level consequences for employers that knowingly employ unauthorized workers and strengthened requirements concerning cooperation between Indiana governmental entities and federal immigration authorities.

Rokita helped champion the legislation and now says the ICE agreement provides another mechanism for carrying it out.

His most pointed message Wednesday, however, was directed toward Indiana's elected sheriffs.

Rokita argued that 287(g) agreements can provide departments with additional enforcement tools while potentially opening access to federal grants and other funding. He rejected the argument that participation necessarily drains resources from ordinary local policing.

He also challenged the Indiana Sheriffs' Association to encourage broader participation and urged residents whose sheriffs have not joined to ask them why.

That invitation is likely to intensify an already contentious debate.

Supporters of 287(g) partnerships argue that state and local officers are often in the best position to identify people who may be removable under federal law, particularly when those individuals are already in custody, and that cooperation prevents potentially dangerous offenders from simply returning to the community.

Critics have argued that involving local police more deeply in federal immigration enforcement can discourage immigrants from reporting crimes or cooperating with police. Civil-liberties organizations have also challenged aspects of immigration detention and the extent to which states can require local officials to honor federal detainer requests.

That legal dispute is already playing out in Indiana.

Litigation involving Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté remains active, and a court this summer issued a preliminary injunction involving a new Indiana provision requiring sheriffs to honor ICE detainers. That order is being appealed.

Wednesday's announcement therefore does more than add another Indiana agency to a federal program.

It puts the state's elected attorney general directly into the enforcement partnership he has spent years urging others to embrace.

Indiana's immigration policy is rapidly moving away from simply cooperating when federal authorities request assistance. State agencies are increasingly becoming active partners in the federal enforcement system.

And Rokita has now made clear where he wants that policy to go next:

From the Attorney General's Office to the sheriff's department in every one of Indiana's 92 counties.

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