The Wyoming Highway Patrol has agreed to perform some federal immigration enforcement for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The statewide agency entered into an agreement with ICE “to assist ICE with immigration enforcement while performing their regular duties,” Gov. Mark Gordon announced in a Monday statement.
The move is significant. To date, five Wyoming sheriffs also have established various cross-enforcement or detainee housing agreements with ICE.
But this is the first Wyoming statewide agency to do so.
Proponents cast the agreement as a step toward public safety, while opponents worry it could prompt unequal enforcement.
The agreement, categorized as “287(g)” after its underpinning section of federal law, gives the state highway patrol the authority to perform “specified officer functions under ICE’s oversight,” the statement continues.
Troopers can “take action” and develop evidence when they encounter people violating federal immigration laws, under the agreement.
“Wyoming has been firm in our commitment to helping secure the border, and this is another step in that process,” Gordon said in the statement. “Our nation’s security depends upon effective immigration enforcement, and I am proud that our Wyoming Highway Patrol continues to support this effort and is now formalizing their commitment to this work through our agreement with ICE.”
‘Appropriate Detention Actions’
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January directing the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security to secure agreements like these with state and local police agencies.
“The signing of this agreement and the Wyoming Highway Patrol joining the 287(g) program is a great force multiplier for my ICE officers in Wyoming,” Robert Guadian, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Denver Field Office director, said in the statement. “I applaud the governor for joining with us to keep Wyoming communities safe.”
The agreement lets WHP personnel access ICE databases to establish whether people are in the country illegally, and take what the statement calls “appropriate detention actions under direction of ICE.”
The officers will receive free training and the state will incur no additional cost for participating in the program, the statement adds.
“Our troopers are uniquely positioned to support immigration enforcement through our daily operations along Wyoming’s interstates — key corridors for cross-country travel that are sometimes exploited for unlawful activity,” WHP Col. Tim Cameron said in the statement, touting the agreement as a move toward public safety and a strengthening of law enforcement relationships.
WHP is slated to work in partnership with the five sheriff’s agencies already under ICE agreements. Those are the sheriff's offices of Carbon, Campbell, Natrona, Sweetwater and Laramie Counties.
“Additional Wyoming counties are exploring participation in the program,” the governor’s statement says.
Gordon previously gave Wyoming resources to help secure the southern border, supported by a $750,000 appropriation from the Wyoming Legislature in 2024 for reimbursing Wyoming law enforcement agencies assisting in border law enforcement efforts.
When Texas asked for help in 2023 and 2024, Gordon sent Wyoming law enforcement personnel to provide support along that state’s border with Mexico.
After the 2024 deployment, Texas Rangers traveled to Wyoming to train the state’s law enforcement officers.
Contacted Monday for comment, ICE referred Cowboy State Daily to its publicly available website and to the Wyoming Highway Patrol for more specifics on the agreement.
'Disappointing'
American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming senior staff attorney Andrew Malone could not be reached immediately for comment Monday.
Malone, however, warned against this type of agreement in a past interview with Cowboy State Daily, when contemplating the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office’s pursuit of the same.
That type of agreement existed prior to 2012 but was halted that year. Under the Obama administration, ICE said it discontinued the program because task forces “have proven to be a less efficient means of identifying priority individuals subject to removal compared to other enforcement programs.”
The model was revived by one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
“(It has) a really disappointing history,” said Malone.
He also voiced a concern that local undocumented immigrants — including crime victims and witnesses — will be less likely to report crimes if they know the local law enforcement is working with ICE. That goes for any type of agreement, not just the task force model, he said.
The ACLU in a Monday email told Cowboy State Daily that the federal government's interests diverge with what's best for Wyoming, and the compliance with ICE "puts politics over the best interests of Wyoming."
"We’ve seen around the country that this (type of agreement) has led to racial profiling, civil rights abuses and diverts needed resources from state and local law enforcement. A culture of suspicion and division in Wyoming serves no one," says the group's email. "We are stronger when we find ways to encourage participation and contribution, not ways to divide, exclude and discriminate."
Most people "can agree," the group continued, "that the federal government needs to do much better on immigration policy and identify real solutions that are orderly, humane and fair."
This agreement, the ACLU claims, "turns the Wyoming Highway Patrol into an extension of the federal government."
"Instead of imposing the federal government's wishes upon every community in Wyoming, we encourage local control and support the right of local law enforcement to put the needs of their communities first by declining to participate in unnecessary, voluntary immigration enforcement," the ACLU's statement concludes.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
