OWENSVILLE — The Owensville Police Department (OPD) joined a program run by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that pays local law enforcement agencies to perform some types of immigration enforcement. OPD has referred one arrest to ICE since Aug. 31, when they signed the agreement to participate.

Section 287(g) was added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996. That section allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, to deputize local, state and tribal law enforcement to perform some immigration enforcement under the direction of ICE supervisors. Both the OPD and the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department signed a Memorandum of Agreement with ICE in August to join the program as part of their “task force model,” according to a federal list of participating law enforcement agencies.

There are three models an agency can agree to adopt if their application for the program is approved by DHS. The “jail enforcement model” allows local agencies to identify, interrogate, hold and process immigrants “who have pending or active criminal charges.” The “warrant service officer model” allows law enforcement to serve and execute warrants on individuals already in their cus tody for a crime. The “task force model” allows officers to interrogate and arrest individuals suspected of having an illegal immigration status, according to an ICE fact sheet.

Four OPD officers have been deputized as task force members capable of immigration enforcement action following the completion of training sessions provided by ICE. Chief Scott Griffith said that they’ve been instructed to do so only when it comes up during routine policing.

“We can act under federal law, but we can only act on immigration stuff in relation to another crime,” Griffith said. “We can’t go and try to find someone who is here illegally.”

The first instance of immigration enforcement qualifies the department for a stipend of up to $100,000 for the purchase of a vehicle, and $7,500 for the purchase of equipment – for each of the four credentialed task officers. Following that stipend, OPD would be eligible to receive up to $15,000 for equipment per officer for each fiscal quarter. OPD is currently processing paperwork regarding compensation for the one individual they processed so far in collaboration with ICE. Once that is filed, they will have to wait for a determination to see exactly what funds they qualify for.

Griffith said he didn’t sign up for the program simply for the sake of assisting with immigration enforcement, or for the money, but because it allows his police force to do their job more efficiently than they would be able to otherwise. So far, the only time an OPD officer reached out to an ICE supervisor was because he believed an individual he arrested was in the country illegally. The entire process was completed in two hours. In the past, that could have taken 12 hours or more, Griffith said.

Officer Tanner Brandon, School Resource Officer Paul Baldwin, Cpl. David Mabe and Sgt. Robert Green are the four OPD officers who have completed ICE training and are therefore qualified for 287(g) enforcement. The Gasconade County Republican will check back periodically to update readers on how the program is being applied locally, and what funds OPD receives from DHS for their immigration enforcement work.

The police departments of Bland, Hermann, and Gerald have not yet enrolled in the 287(g) program, according to the DHS list of participating agencies. The city of Gerald enrolled in the program April 22, and Franklin County is also participating.

The task force model has run into a significant amount of controversy. The 287(g) program was scaled back during the Obama administration following a report by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice that led to DHS terminating all of its 287(g) contracts with law enforcement agencies in Arizona. The investigation found that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office had repeatedly and unconstitutionally racially profiled Latinos through enforcement actions, including retaliation against those who voiced opposition to their practices.

Donald Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025, which revived and expanded the program in the hope of achieving his goal of deporting millions of people. The 287(g) program has rapidly grown in Missouri since then. Arrests made under ICE supervision during the first seven months of 2026 have more than doubled since the previous year, according to reporting by Paul Wagman of the Gateway Journalism Review.

Wagman used data obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made by University of California, Berkeley. That data appears to show that around 70 percent of those arrested in Missouri in 2026 who were processed through the 287(g) program had no past or pending criminal convictions. ICE disputed that statistic, stating that the number of those arrested without criminal convictions or pending charges is closer to 30 percent nationally, but did not provide data to support that statement, according to Wagman.

Proponents say the 287(g) program is an effective way of getting criminals, who are in the country illegally, into the deportation process, and to do so without spending more federal money. Detractors say that it is often used to racially profile people, that the majority of those arrested through the program have not been previously accused of a crime and that local tax dollars are footing the bill for ICE enforcement.