A voluntary agreement between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the state of Utah threatens to dramatically expand Trump’s deportation apparatus. If finalized, this 287(g) agreement, as it is known, would give state and county officers the power to carry out “civil immigration enforcement,” a role traditionally reserved for federal agents. With Salt Lake City hosting the only immigration court covering Utah, Idaho and Montana, the state is a strategic hub for expedited removals, fast-tracking deportations with minimal due process.
This agreement would be the second agency in the state to formalize such a partnership with ICE, effectively turning Utah police into an extension of federal immigration enforcement. Worse, in a copy of the sample agreement on ICE’s website, Utah could agree to rent beds in local jails to ICE for long-term immigration detention, a move that directly enables Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
As recently as March 2025, every Utah county had canceled its 287(g) agreements with ICE. A 2023 memo from Salt Lake City ICE Field Director Michael Bernacke confirmed that terminations by Utah, Cache, and Washington Counties had ended ICE’s ability to detain immigrants “long term,” or over 72 hours.
So why the sudden shift?
Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith claimed in 2024 that his jail couldn’t meet ICE’s standards for holding civil detainees, stating, “We’re a criminal facility… we are not set up for civil holds.” Now, the Trump administration and Utah lawmakers aim to lower standards and criminalize immigrants to justify the inhumane treatment of anyone who they deem “criminal”.
At the National Sheriffs’ Association meeting in January, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, openly admitted the administration’s goal: weakening detention requirements to lock up more migrants, using local police as “force multipliers” for immigration enforcement.
The consequences will be severe. On his first day back in office, Trump terminated legal protections for migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti. Immigrants and refugees that entered through established legal pathways, now face immediate deportation.
This is especially alarming as Utah has spent decades promoting itself as a compassionate and welcoming place for those people fleeing hardships in their home countries. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in a 2024 release of population estimates, Venezuelans represent the largest group of new state residents from a single country since 2012.
Now Utah lawmakers are using xenophobic and racist claims that immigrants in our community are “criminals” lowering Utahns’ quality of life. The facts show another reality: records maintained by the Utah Department of Public Services show that crime has been decreasing in the state since an uptick during the pandemic.
Expedited removal: A threat to due process
The 287(g) deal also accelerates expedited removal, a process that denies immigrants a day in court. Previously limited to border regions and recent arrivals, Trump has expanded it nationwide, forcing immigrants to prove two years of continuous residency — a near-impossible task for many.
Despite claims from Utah lawmakers that they only target “violent criminals,” the reality is clear: this agreement puts every Utahn at risk, anyone suspected of being undocumented could be held in immigration detention with no guarantee that they would be afforded the right to make their case to a judge.
The Salt Lake Community Bail Fund is working to expose the harms of pre-trial and immigration detention. The group notes that “Utah lawmakers are aligned with federal politicians in their justifications of these attacks on immigrants by utilizing racist claims that paint immigrants as “criminals” who do not deserve basic rights or due-process. This criminalization and dehumanizing of poor and oppressed people allows lawmakers to continue to fund mass incarceration and war instead of the resources people actually need”.
This 287(g) agreement is not about safety, it’s about expanding repression. By turning local police into ICE agents and jails into immigration detention centers, Utah lawmakers are helping Trump wage a war on immigrants. The working class in Utah must fight against this agreement attacking immigrants in our communities. We demand money for housing and education, not for racist deportations.
Feature image: ICE agents during a training exercise. Credit: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (public domain)
