Nearly 60 law enforcement agencies across Kentucky have signed up for a controversial program that gives some powers of federal immigration enforcement to state and local officers.
The count marks an uptick from the 17 agencies taking part in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 287(g) program at the end of last year.
The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting reviewed federal data, published by ICE, that shows 34 sheriff's offices, 22 police departments and three county jails across the commonwealth are participating in the program as of Nov. 4. Unlike neighboring Indiana, Missouri and West Virginia, Kentucky's state police department hasn't signed up.
Kentucky law enforcement officers also are arresting more immigrants for ICE, a recent data analysis by KyCIR found. In June, 287(g) arrests accounted for 18% of ICE arrests in Kentucky, hitting a record high for the state under President Donald Trump's administration.
What's happening in Kentucky mirrors national trends. Federal data for 2026 show more local law enforcement agencies, especially in the South, joining the 287(g) program and making more ICE arrests.
"I think many people, regardless of where they may stand on immigration, should be highly concerned that so many police forces across the nation are federalizing in this way. And it's severely affecting our immigrant neighbors, first and foremost," said Michael Staverman, a member of the community collective Northern Kentucky Against ICE. "People that have to go work outside of a metro area or simply travel on a highway have to worry about what counties are safe and what counties are not."
There are three 287(g) models that police agencies can participate in, with each option giving them certain immigration enforcement powers. Almost all the Kentucky agencies signed up for the controversial task force model, which lets state and local officers detain immigrants for ICE out in the community.
Former President Barack Obama canceled the task force model in 2012 amid mounting evidence that it fueled racial profiling by police. Trump resurrected the model last year as part of his aggressive effort to deport millions of immigrants.
An October report by FWD.us, a Washington D.C.-based immigrant advocacy group, found that 80% of law enforcement agencies in the task force model operate in communities with under 50,000 residents.
Likewise, in Kentucky, many of the participating agencies are based in rural areas and small towns. Police and sheriffs for the state's biggest cities – Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green – are not in the 287(g) program.
ICE's website says the federal agency "recognizes the importance of its relationships with law enforcement partners — including state and local agencies — to carry out its critical mission."
It says the 287(g) program enhances such collaboration "to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of aliens who undermine the safety of our nation's communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws."
Kelly Young is a member of the Oldham County-based community group Kentucky Citizens for Democracy, which she said is opposed to 287(g) agreements. Their county sheriff's department joined the 287(g) task force model in May, and their county jail joined last year.
A big worry, she said, is that local law enforcement's decision to help ICE arrest immigrants, by joining the 287(g) program, will make people afraid to report a crime or ask officers for help.
"I think it just changes the relationship between the people who live here and local law enforcement," she continued. "Does an ordinary encounter with a deputy now – does that feel threatening?"
Young, who writes about local immigration enforcement in an online newsletter, said Oldham County Sheriff Tim Wakefield has been "pretty open" about his office's 287(g) involvement, readily answering her requests for information and documents on it. KyCIR requested an interview with Wakefield but did not receive a response.
KyCIR also contacted several other Kentucky sheriffs and police chiefs whose agencies joined the 287(g) program this year, but did not hear back.
The growth in ICE's 287(g) program, both nationally and in Kentucky, follows the federal government's rollout of financial incentives that encourage state and local agencies to join.
The incentives can help agencies get equipment and vehicles, cover some of their participating officers' salaries and give performance-based bonus payments based on how much assistance they provide to ICE.
In Kentucky, 287(g) sign-ups by local law enforcement have steadily grown this year, data show. At least two agencies joined the program every month from January through October 2026, whereas there were five months in 2025 when none did.
Staverman, with the Northern Kentucky Against ICE collective, said the 287(g) program is just one way local agencies may collaborate with ICE.
In northern Kentucky's Campbell, Kenton and Boone counties, for example, no agency has signed up for the controversial task force model, but all three county jails earn fees from the federal government to hold people already detained by ICE. (The Kenton County jail also participates in the 287(g) program's jail enforcement model, which lets officers interrogate people in the local jail about their immigration status and serve warrants for immigration violations on people in the jail.)
Staverman said he'd like all collaboration between ICE and local agencies to end.
"287(g) agreements are important to focus on," he said. "But it's certainly not the whole picture."
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