Bounties, Badges, and Broken Trust: How ICE’s 287(g) Expansion Is Redrawing Law Enforcement in the Midwest
- Natalie Frank
- Sep 22
- 1 min read
Financial incentives fuel surge in local ICE partnerships, but civil rights advocates warn of oversight failures, lasting damage to community trust
Natalie C. Frank, Ph.D September 22, 2025
MIDWEST - On a quiet stretch of Nebraska farmland, Sheriff Chad McCumbers is gearing up his deputies for a new job: immigration enforcement. Under the federal 287(g) “task force model,” his team can now question people about their immigration status and make arrests. There’s a catch: deputies may also get quarterly cash bonuses for finding undocumented immigrants.
“This might change priorities a little bit if we have a monetary incentive,” McCumbers said.
His remark highlights a bigger change across the Midwest, where the Department of Homeland Security has quietly tied financial rewards to immigration policing, raising concerns among immigrant-rights groups, watchdogs, and even some sheriffs.
Since President Donald Trump began his second term, the number of local law enforcement agencies with 287(g) agreements has jumped from 135 in January 2025 to more than 1,000 by September.
In the Midwest alone, agreements went from three in January to 34 by late September. ICE now counts more than 8,500 local officers as part of its expanded enforcement force, with at least 2,000 more in training.
That rapid growth shows a deliberate shift. Rather than just asking sheriffs to cooperate, DHS is paying them to do it.
