Anti-immigration enforcement has ramped up since the inauguration in January, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arresting more than 1,000 people per day on average nationally and locking up nearly 60,000 immigrants in detention facilities. In Kentucky alone, ICE has arrested nearly 1,300 people between January 20 and the end of July, a 37.6% increase compared to the same period in 2024.
The increased arrests are only part of the story though. State and local governments play a central role in implementing this mass deportation agenda, which includes financial incentives for law enforcement agencies to formally partner with ICE and for jails to rent out beds for detention. In Kentucky, 14 local law enforcement groups have already signed 287(g) agreements and nine county jails are contracting with ICE to hold detainees.
There were nearly 1,300 ICE arrests in Kentucky in the first six months of the new administration
On January 20, the Department of Homeland Security issued a directive rescinding the Biden administration’s “protected areas policy” that prevented immigration enforcement in places like churches, schools and hospitals. ICE arrests surged following the inauguration, with 32,809 between January 20 and March 10, the equivalent of about 656 arrests per day, compared to 255 each day under the previous administration. After ICE reportedly received orders on May 20 to further intensify their efforts and started targeting workplaces and immigration court, there was a peak of around 30,000 arrests in June compared to 8,000 in June 2024. That’s the highest level since at least 2020, but is still far below the goal of 3,000 per day, or roughly 90,000 a month. ICE arrests averaged 1,124 a day in July and 1,055 in August.
In Kentucky, between Jan. 20, 2025 and the end of July there were 1,293 ICE arrests. That’s a 37.6% increase compared to the 940 arrests in 2024 during the same period.
These efforts to drive up the number of arrests have led to the targeting of people with no criminal history (and even for those convicted of a criminal offense it may be for something minor). Immigrants with no criminal convictions now make up the largest group of people arrested and detained by ICE.
As can be seen in the map, jails are the most common location for ICE arrests in the state, especially those occurring outside of Louisville. Data also shows that the most common country of origin for people arrested by ICE in Kentucky from January through July 2025 was Mexico (583), followed by Guatemala (388) and Honduras (130).
ICE arrests alone don’t even capture the full scope of the situation, as illustrated by a May 29 immigration raid in Harlan that was carried out by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), despite being unrelated to drugs.
States and localities play a key role in administration’s anti-immigrant agenda
During the campaign the Trump administration promised to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history and remove 15 to 20 million undocumented immigrants — a number greater than the 14 million estimated to live in the U.S. The administration is reportedly pressuring ICE to arrest 3,000 immigrants a day and deport a record one million each year who are already in the country without legal status.
On its very first day, the administration issued 10 executive orders and proclamations that set in motion a sweeping anti-immigrant policy agenda. The major executive order on immigration enforcement in the U.S. interior, “Protecting the American People From Invasion,” included numerous policies designed to massively increase arrests and deportations:
- Requiring immigrants without citizenship register with the federal government or be subject to criminal prosecution. Government officials have explicitly said they plan to use the registry information to find and arrest people, deport them or pressure them to leave the country on their own.
- Directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to dramatically expand the immigration detention infrastructure and start detaining everyone arrested pending their deportation.
- Broadening the application of “expedited removal,” which allows the U.S. to deport someone without a court hearing in as little as a single day. Such a fast-tracked process can lead to erroneous deportations, especially since most of these individuals lack legal representation; many are issued removal orders before they can make a phone call; and language interpretation is often unavailable.
The administration is utilizing state and local law enforcement to carry out its aggressive plan. The “Protecting the American People From Invasion” executive order directed DHS to expand 287(g) agreements with state and local law enforcement to mobilize them as partners in enforcing federal immigration law “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” In addition, ICE issued a separate set of standards in July for immigrant detention in facilities that already incarcerate people in state/local custody. These new standards reduced the number of required procedures and oversight, compared to dedicated facilities, which is a strategy to expand immigrant detention in local jails by making it easier to enter into these agreements with ICE.
An April executive order threatened to revoke all federal funding to states and localities deemed to be “sanctuary” jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Louisville was on the Department of Justice’s published list of so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions because of a local ordinance preventing the jail from keeping someone in custody at the request of ICE (an “ICE detainer”) for as long as 48 hours after their scheduled release; the mayor later announced a reversal of its policy and Louisville was removed from this list.
HR 1, the budget megabill that passed Congress this summer, also appropriated $170.7 billion to carry out this anti-immigrant agenda. In addition to $75 billion for the enforcement, surveillance and militarization of borders, the legislation included:
- $45 billion to increase ICE detention capacity to 100,000 beds for detaining immigrant adults and families;
- $29.9 billion for immigration agents and operations related to enforcement and deportation —including for expedited removal processes and the 287(g) program;
- $13.5 billion for states and localities to seek reimbursement for an array of expenses related to the direct enforcement of federal immigration laws; and
- $3.3 billion to the Department of Justice, primarily to prosecute immigrants for status offenses such as failure to register as a noncitizen with the federal government.
14 Kentucky law enforcement agencies have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE
Section 287(g) was added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996, authorizing ICE to give state and local law enforcement officers the authority to enforce federal immigration law. Starting with 9/11, it’s been utilized during times of heightened immigration enforcement.
During the first Trump administration, the number of 287(g) agreements jumped from 35 to 150. Between January 20 and October 1 of this year, the number surged from 135 in January to 1,036 on October 1. These numbers will likely keep rising, especially with the introduction of new financial incentives for agencies to participate through HR 1 that heighten long-held concerns about racial profiling, violence and other human and civil rights violations in the 287(g) program.
Half of the agreements are the Task Force Model, which empowers state or local law enforcement to make immigration arrests during routine policing and was discontinued from 2012 until this January due to documented civil rights abuses. A month ago, 8,501 Task Force officers had completed training and more than 2,000 additional officers were in training.
There are two other types of 287(g) agreements:
- Jail Enforcement Model – Corrections officers are deputized by the federal government to interrogate people about their immigration status.
- Warrant Service Officer Model – ICE trains, certifies and authorizes state and local law enforcement officers to serve and execute administrative immigration warrants on people who are in custody in their agency’s jail.
Both the Task Force Model and Jail Enforcement Model have historically required a four-week, in-person training program, while the more-limited Warrant Service Officer Model required just eight hours of training. However, in bringing back the Task Force Model the Trump administration is only requiring a 40-hour online training course, which is especially concerning given this model is the most aggressive and has a history of abuses.
In Kentucky there are now 20 287(g) contracts across 14 different agencies, half of which are the problematic Task Force Model.
Task Force Model
- Grayson County Sheriff’s Office (3/5/25)
- Daviess County Sheriff’s Department (3/10/25)
- Heritage Creek Police Department (4/29/25)
- Bracken County Sheriff’s Office (5/8/25)
- Lyon County Sheriff’s Office (5/8/25)
- Marshall County Sheriff’s Office (5/8/25)
- Union County Sheriff’s Office (5/16/25)
- Scott County Sheriff’s Office (7/2/25)
- Butler County Sheriff’s Office (MOU link pending) (9/9/25)
- Clinton County Sheriff’s Office (MOU link pending) (9/9/25)
Jail Enforcement Model
- Grayson County Detention Center (3/5/25)
- Oldham County Detention Center (3/10/25)
- Bullitt County Detention Center (3/21/25)
- Kenton County Sheriff’s Office (5/2/25)
- Butler County Sheriff’s Office (MOU link pending) (9/9/25)
Warrant Service Officer Model
- Grayson County Detention Center (3/5/25)
- Daviess County Sheriff’s Department (3/10/25)
- Oldham County Detention Center (3/10/25)
- Kenton County Sheriff’s Office (5/6/25)
- Butler County Sheriff’s Office (MOU link pending) (9/9/25)
ICE detention is putting further pressure on the state’s already-strained local jails
The total number of people detained by ICE is now 59,762, up from 39,703 on January 12, which is a 51% increase. Yet these staggering numbers only reflect around two-thirds of people detained for immigration reasons as they don’t include those facing criminal prosecution in the custody of U.S. Marshals or the Bureau of Prisons.
Local jails are playing a significant role in the Trump administration’s mass arrest and deportation agenda because in 25 states they are the only facilities available for holding people arrested by ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service. The federal government depends on local jails for detention space, and transfers people across the country to local jails that they pay a per diem. In Kentucky, the increasing use of local jails for immigration detention is putting pressure on an already-strained system rife with crowding and other poor, dangerous conditions.
Kentucky’s local jails have a long history of renting jail beds to the federal government federal per-diem amounts are typically much higher than what the state pays jails to incarcerate people in Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) custody. Laurel County and Grayson County even vastly expanded their local jails for the specific purpose of holding more people in federal custody for this reason.
Until recently, these jails primarily held people in the federal criminal system for the U.S. Marshal’s service rather than ICE; however, there is a lot of interplay between the two agencies that is important for getting a full picture of immigration detention in jails. For a person arrested by ICE who is charged with a federal immigration crime, custody is transferred to the U.S. Marshals until the criminal case is resolved, at which time ICE can arrest them again (directly from jail or prison after their case is dismissed or they serve a sentence) and then they re-enter immigration detention.
Kentucky jail data shows a marked increase in the number of people in federal custody in Kentucky jails since the beginning of this year — jumping from 1,963 on January 23 to 2,544 on July 31 — a 29.6% increase.
Note that the federal custody population number includes immigrants detained by ICE and by the U.S. Marshals for a federal immigration crime (and for 49% of people booked into U.S. Marshals custody in May, immigration offenses were the reason), as well as people in U.S. Marshals custody who are not immigrants and have federal criminal charges completely unrelated to immigration.
Although it isn’t possible to parse out exactly how many people in federal custody in Kentucky jails are being detained for immigration enforcement reasons, it’s clear the upward trend that started in February is related to the intensification of immigration enforcement happening around the same time.
ICE data analyzed by Relevant Research shows dramatic growth in the number of Kentucky jails contracting with ICE for beds and in the estimated average daily population of these detainees. In 2024, just one local facility in the state, the Boone County Detention Center, had a consistent and significant population of people in ICE custody, and on Jan. 21, 2025 the average daily population of ICE detainees in Kentucky jails was 120.5. By Aug. 18, 2025 there were 915.0 people in ICE custody — a 659% increase — across nine local jails, six of which consistently hold a significant number of people in ICE custody.
The National Immigration Law Center’s “Know Your Rights” resources and other up-to-date information for immigrant communities and advocates can be found here: https://www.nilc.org/resources.
