Attorney General Ken Paxton said Wednesday he is investigating the Dallas County sheriff for allegedly refusing to seek a formal agreement to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Texas Legislature last year passed a law requiring sheriffs who run a jail or contract out jail operations to take part in the federal 287(g) program, which gives local law enforcement certain immigration enforcement authority. Since the law took effect Jan. 1, Paxton said sheriffs in El Paso, Bexar and Harris counties have started negotiating or finalized an agreement with ICE — but that has not been the case for Dallas County.
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He also criticized a comment that Sheriff Marian Brown made in October about putting “no additional efforts” into entering the 287(g) program.
“The decision of whether to seek such an agreement is not yours to make,” Paxton said in a Wednesday letter to the sheriff.
Brown said Paxton jumped the gun, noting in a statement that the law gives her until Dec. 1 to comply.
Responding to the criticism of her “no additional efforts” statement, the sheriff said her office already cooperates with federal immigration authorities similar to what would be required under the 287(g) agreement’s jail enforcement model.
“My comments reflected my position that Dallas County already engages in cooperation with federal authorities and does not view duplicative administrative measures as necessary to achieve the same public safety objectives,” Brown said in her statement.
The jail enforcement model — one of two types of jail-related partnerships under the 287(g) program — allows local law enforcement to identify people for immigration enforcement when they are already in custody with pending or active criminal charges. The warrant service model lets officers “serve and execute administrative warrants” on people in their jails and hold them for ICE.
But even without a partnership, the Dallas County Jail was among the nation’s top 10 jails for ICE detainers, which are requests from immigration agents to hold a person for deportation. The North Texas lockup accounted for more than 4,000 detainers between September 2023 and late July 2025 — surpassing Bexar County during the same period — according to figures from the Deportation Data Project. Meanwhile, Harris County Jail led the country with more than 9,500 detainers.
A 2017 state law also requires sheriff’s offices, which operate county jails, to honor these detainer requests.
The Bexar County sheriff entered into a 287(g) warrant service agreement in October, according to ICE data last updated on May 12.
Information for El Paso and Harris counties was not yet available, though the El Paso agency told the Tribune that it intends to also pursue the same model.
ICE data show Texas sheriffs have signed 270 agreements under the cooperative program as of May 12, including some counties registering for multiple models.
The 287(g) program also has the task force model that allows local law enforcement agencies to question individuals about their immigration status during routine policing work.