ICE expands local enforcement through 287(g)

ICE arrests more than doubled in 15 states and Washington, D.C., as local departments entered or widened federal partnerships, according to a Marshall Project analysis of Deportation Data Project records. In Georgia, WABE found ICE working more quietly through local police this summer, away from the administration’s earlier city-centered operations. The Marshall Project, WABE, PBS NewsHour

The machinery is often 287(g): local officers, county jails and ICE share the work of an arrest. ICE’s September report shows the program operating through both local-custody encounters and task-force arrests. New federal funding is helping drive the expansion: States Newsroom reports that the program’s new local partners have multiplied as Congress funded state and local enforcement, while Vermont reporting shows what the quieter federal presence can look like on the ground. ICE (Monthly Encounter Report), States Newsroom, Addison Independent

Recovered Factory’s rebuilt 287(g) Watch makes the local roster easier to search by state and agency, then takes readers to individual-agency records. Tory Lysik’s redesign adds more useful search and context, but the public roster still cannot show how authority is used in a particular town or jail; that record often requires public-records requests to local police departments, sheriffs and counties. 287(g) Watch

Mexico sends troops to Tamaulipas as shooting claim in U.S.-Mexico joint operation remains unresolved

Mexico has sent 500 Army and National Guard personnel to five Tamaulipas border municipalities under Operación Concurrente, with two UH-60 helicopters, drones and counter-drone equipment. The Mexican force operates on its side of the Rio Grande as both governments reinforce security coordination along this stretch of the border. Proceso, The Washington Post

The deployment follows a Sept. 26 encounter near Garceño, Texas, in which the Coast Guard says personnel taking part in a joint interdiction operation took fire and returned it. No one was reported injured, and U.S. officials have not publicly identified the shooters. The incident sheds light on the countries’ relationship on this stretch of the border: coordination has intensified even as the account that prompted it remains disputed. Military.com, El País

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico had not seen evidence that shots came from Mexican territory and asked Washington to provide it. Mexico’s forces have nonetheless begun mirror patrols with U.S. counterparts; the identity of any shooter, cartel involvement and the precise sequence behind the reported gunfire remain unresolved. Al Jazeera, El Universal

Minneapolis tracks ICE as federal charges follow

Signal chats, neighborhood spotters and legal-support networks that grew around Operation Metro Surge are now part of a federal prosecution theory. Reason reports that residents used encrypted chats to report ICE activity, warn businesses and track agents; a June indictment alleges 15 protesters coordinated through social media, texts and encrypted messaging to impede enforcement. The defendants have pleaded not guilty. Reason

Judge stops Big Bend wall work, for now

A federal judge halted border-barrier construction and related ground disturbance across Texas’s Big Bend sector while the case moves ahead. Judge Kathleen Cardone found the challengers likely to succeed on at least one claim and likely to suffer irreparable harm without interim relief. PBS NewsHour / AP, KRWG Public Media

The order pauses bulldozers, not the case. It does not settle the underlying challenge or permanently invalidate the government’s waiver authority; CBP told local reporters it was working with the Justice Department on next steps. Marfa Public Radio

Around the system

At Minnesota’s Fort Snelling immigration court, a release order did not mean release. MPR News reports that people who won habeas relief were met by federal agents before they could leave the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building and taken back into ICE custody, often to county jails that contract with the agency. Lawyers say the practice tests what a court-ordered release means in practice. MPR News

Tennessee’s arrest-and-detention numbers have climbed sharply. An analysis of Deportation Data Project records by Tennessee Lookout found that immigration arrests and detention in the state rose nearly four-fold during the administration’s first year, compared with the final year of the Biden administration. The outlet reports that nearly 15,000 people were detained during the first 19 months of the current term. Tennessee Lookout

South Dakota has extended National Guard help with ICE’s paperwork. Gov. Larry Rhoden’s office says seven Guard members have helped process 1,013 deportations since July 2025, and his new order keeps the arrangement in place through September 2027. The state has not said how many of those people lived in South Dakota; its Highway Patrol also has an ICE agreement under which trained troopers can question people about immigration status and hold them for ICE. South Dakota Searchlight

ICE is expanding its Batavia, New York, detention center to hold women. Public contracting records reviewed by EL PAÍS show DHS plans to spend about $17 million to expand and equip the Buffalo Service Processing Center, with space for up to 100 women. The plan follows New York’s move to bar county jails from housing people for ICE, leaving the agency to seek capacity elsewhere in the state. EL PAÍS

A new federal suit says ICE is using a Miramar, Florida, field office as a detention center. The class action alleges that DHS and ICE have held people there for days in crowded conditions, deprived them of medical care and confidential access to lawyers, and pressured them to sign documents. The claims, filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Americans for Immigrant Justice, are allegations in an ongoing case. Creative Loafing Tampa

An investigation examines solitary confinement after suicide concerns in ICE custody. Southern California News Group reviewed medical records and more than 300 emergency-call recordings from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, California, documenting suicide attempts and the use of solitary confinement for people in crisis. Mental-health experts told the outlet that isolation can intensify the danger it is meant to manage. Citizens’ Voice / Southern California News Group

In New Jersey, faster immigration-court calendars are reshaping asylum cases. NorthJersey.com reports that some lawyers have been given as little as two weeks to prepare complex asylum claims. In Newark immigration court, it found, all but one of 488 asylum applicants were denied in August; the report cites TRAC data showing a 94% denial rate nationwide that month. NorthJersey.com

A nurse seeks her day in court after an encounter at Delaney Hall. The Guardian follows Norma Bowe, a registered nurse and professor who says ICE agents threw her to the ground at the Newark, New Jersey, detention center while she was tending to a child distressed over her father’s detention. Video captured the episode; Bowe’s legal action is now one of the cases emerging from the facility. The Guardian

A federal judge dismissed a church-led challenge to Tennessee’s harboring law without reaching its core constitutional claims. The ruling found that Lutheran churches, a landlord and a family member lacked standing because they could not show an immediate threat of prosecution. The law remains in force; in court, state lawyers said it applies to for-profit conduct undertaken with an intent to conceal, though the judge noted that reading is not explicit in the statute. Tennessee Lookout