Tennessee, Virginia law enforcement partners with ICE

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may have made its first major impression in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee in the spring of 2025, when residents of Duffield found they had received a new designation from ICE's parent agency. Scott County officials wondered how, on May 30, the town of fewer than 80 residents had shown up on a Department of Homeland Security webpage as one of 33 Virginia localities branded as "Sanctuary Jurisdictions Defying Federal Immigration Law." Trump administration Executive Order 14287: "Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens" was DHS' justification for Duffield's inclusion, but the town was removed without DHS explanation from the site. Trump's order, however, has led to a less visible trend in the past year — 66 Tennessee and 29 Virginia sheriff's offices and regional jail authorities have agreed to help ICE with either arresting undocumented immigrants or transferring them to ICE custody after their arrest. ICE enforcement has been a frequent issue in national and regional reporting in recent months, especially with the agency's efforts in Minnesota and the resulting killing of two protestors by ICE officers in January and February. Kingsport residents learned than ICE officers and the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office were cooperating in enforcement on Feb. 12, when a Sullivan County Sheriff's Office vehicle and two deputies were witnessed at an ICE raid at a Lynn Garden Drive motel parking lot. That raid saw three men taken away by the ICE officers. The sales pitch ICE's website includes marketing to attract law enforcement agencies to the 287(g) program — appeals to community safety, and suggestions of available federal funds for participating in ICE enforcement activities. The site also includes printable fact sheets and brochures so deputies and police officers can pitch the idea of a 287(g) agreement to their chiefs or sheriffs. The brochure is titled:"287(g) Benefits: Your agency + Federal Law Enforcement = SAFER COMMUNITIES." A graphic inside the brochure shows the three main 287(g) programs along with a photo of an ICE officer and a sheriff standing together. Tennessee Sullivan County Sheriff's Office officials were interviewed in December about the department's 287(g) task force model agreement. They said then that the department would have six trained officers for task force immigration enforcement work. At their Feb. 12 meeting, the Sullivan County Commission learned that the sheriff's office could receive $214,000 in ICE and state funding for its work with ICE: $145,000 for the 287(g) program and $69,000 in state Department of Safety and Homeland Security Immigration Enforcement Grant money. The funds would go to vehicles and equipment used for immigration enforcement. The Kingsport Times News also submitted a state public records request to the Hawkins County Sheriff's Office about any participation in the 287(g) program. Hawkins Sheriff Ronnie Lawson said his department does not participate in the 287(g) program, nor does it have any agreements, contracts or memorandums of understanding with the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security. Tennessee Chief Immigration Enforcement Officer Ryan Hubbard initiated a meeting with Lawson some months ago about the issue, Lawson said. "It is the policy of my Office to assist any Law Enforcement Agency, upon their request for assistance," Lawson wrote to the Times News. That assistance does include 10 ICE detainers requests for arrestees in Hawkins County, he added. Hawkins County Mayor Mark DeWitte said Lawson is not inclined to sign a formal agreement because the agencies already cooperate. Other agencies in upper East Tennessee with active 287(g) agreements include warrant service office agreements by the Washington County Sheriff's Office, Unicoi County Sheriff's Office, Greene County Sheriff's Office and Hancock County Sheriff's Office. Virginia The Kingsport Times News filed Virginia Freedom of Information Act requests to the Scott County Sheriff's Office and the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority for copies of their 287(g) agreements and all correspondence with DHS, ICE, and Customs and Border Patrol. The request to the jail authority included copies of detainer requests received from ICE back to January 2015 — the start of the first Trump administration. The sheriff's office has one deputy — Investigator Donmic Nickels — trained and certified to make immigration arrests under ICE oversight. SWVRJA, under the terms of its warrant service officer agreement, has four ICE certified and trained officer at its Abingdon Regional Jail facility who can identify and process removable immigrants — with criminal or pending criminal charges — who are arrested by state or local law enforcement agencies. The names of the jail authority warrant service officers were redacted by the authority. Jail Authority Executive Assistant Melissa M. White, in the authority's Feb. 19 response to the FOIA request, denied the request for detainers. "Although these records are subject to discretionary disclosures," White wrote, "the Authority is exercising its right not to release them without a subpoena." White, in a follow-up request for monthly numbers of DHS/ICE detainer requests at each of the authority's four jails, denied that request on grounds that the records did not exist. Official transparency Anita Wadhwani, a reporter with the Tennessee Lookout, asked all 95 Tennessee sheriffs in July 2025 about the number of detainer requests they had received from ICE and of how many inmates were picked up by ICE. "The vast majority didn't even respond," Wadhwani said. "Ultimately, I heard back from just 14 and not all of them answered my questions. I found it very challenging to get what I think is very basic information about local law enforcement's cooperation with ICE." In November, Wadhwani sent questions to 48 local sheriffs' departments — the number of 287(g) participating Tennessee local departments at that time — about their 287(g) agreements. She got two responses. "I understand there is genuinely confidential stuff that's not public information," Wadhwani said, "but the way county or regional resources are being used is a matter of public interest and should be public." Hawes Spencer, a courts and crime reporter with the Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia, covered two ICE enforcement arrests in 2025. The first — an arrest at the Albemarle County Courthouse in April — came to Spencer's attention when witnesses provided him two separate videos of the same event. "The ICE agents had their faces covered," Spencer said, "and that aspect was very concerning to the Albermarle County Commonwealth's Attorney who criticized it as a threat to public safety. I think he was more concerned about the lack of visible badges and the face coverings. I think he was also concerned about the courthouse, which he perceived as a place where the people go to get justice." Spencer said Albemarle County Sheriff Chan Bryant had indicated ICE contacted her before the incident and that agents provided their credentials beforehand. The agents' badges and individual identification were not visible in the videos, though. Spencer got to witness firsthand a second arrest later that year, when an immigrant was sentenced to time served for a sex offense. "I did see him get approached by a team of ICE agents and he fled fast," Spencer recalled. "I ran after them and saw the agents detain him. They were very well marked agents, completely badged and uniformed." Spencer also saw the subject's public defender outside the courthouse and got a quote from her about the arrest. An ICE-released video of the arrest a week later confirmed what Spencer witnessed. "A week or two or three later, I got a call from a DHS or ICE investigator," Spencer said. "They were pumping me for information. They wanted to know if I'd been tipped off to the operation. The investigator seemed to suspect that the public defender who I quoted had tipped me off." "There seems to be a punitive aspect to the government in going after tipsters," Spencer said. "As journalists, we don't look kindly on that, because tipsters are a lifeblood of our practice. I was a little concerned that I'd been put in that position." Open government organizations in Tennessee and Virginia agree that increased ICE enforcement efforts have come with increasing secrecy by federal and some state and local law enforcement agencies. The Tennessee Highway Patrol — subject to a 287(g) task force agreement with ICE — has participated in immigration efforts and arrests with ICE officers. Deborah Fisher, executive director for the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said she has heard of various public and media concerns about THP withholding information such as its high-speed pursuit policy. "I've heard from two news outlets who have been reporting on high-speed chases by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and how they've been very frequent since the [Memphis/state] task force started working out there," Fisher said. "They've documented them through the affidavits on arrests after the chase. Many people have been injured in these chases, and they try to get the pursuit policy from the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the THP won't release it, which is so different than what you expect." Fisher also pointed to a Feb. 19 report by the Nashville Banner — based on an analysis of body- and dashcam footage and arrest records — that showed joint THP-ICE office teams competing on how many immigrants they could arrest. The Banner report also indicated that ICE had inflated statistics on arrests based on criminal charges. "It goes back to my concern and anxiety about changing the standards and culture of our police," Fisher said of the Banner report. "We can't do anything about the ICE officers, that's federal government, but it seems like Tennesseans should want our own state police and local police to maintain standards, to maintain transparency, to not get more secret just because ICE is in town." The Legal Aid Justice Center recently filed Virginia Freedom of Information Act requests for law enforcement agencies' 287(g) agreements. "Not as many as should have responded under FOIA," said Megan Rhyne, Virginia Coalition for Open Government director, "but they were able to determine that 34 or more localities had these agreements." "I've heard of a locality where the attorney said, 'we can't respond to this FOIA request because our agreement with ICE says we can't reveal certain information,'" Rhyne said, "which is not a legitimate response." Rhyne said she has heard of "varying degrees of compliance" for requests made to regional jails in Virginia since they are not subject to Gov. Abigail Spanberger's executive order stopping immigration enforcement cooperation with ICE. "We really don't have any control what the federal government is trying to keep secret and not release," Fisher said. "I don't want the secrecy that seems to be the operational mode for ICE to be something that infects our Tennessee Highway Patrol or our local police officers." "While some people may not always be happy about the transparency of our local police or state highway patrol officers," Fisher said, "in general they have methods of making public records available." Kingsport Times News reporters Sarah Monoson, Rebekah McNerney and Rick Wagner contributed to this report.