By Rita Cook
Texas Metro News
https://texasmetronews.com
AUSTIN – The well-respected Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown has let Austin know she is playing by her own rules.
Sheriff Brown sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton regarding his warning to the county about the absence of a formal partnership with federal immigration authorities.
The request made by Paxton was for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department to enter a 287(g) agreement with ICE prior to June 1.
Brown wrote in her reply to Paxton that the legislature had established a compliance deadline of December 1 and not June 1, 2026.
The letter read “Accordingly, no statutory violation presently exists, nor has the legislature imposed any requirement that counties certify compliance by the date referenced in your letter.”
Public statements that have been made also indicated Brown was not going to make any effort to enter into a federal immigration authorities’ arrangement, which she denied.
She said Dallas County has a working relationship with ICE and “participates in operational coordination substantially similar to the jail-enforcement model contemplated by Chapter 783.”
Chapter 783 was enacted under Senate Bill 8 and requires county sheriffs operating jails to seek cooperative immigration enforcement agreements with ICE under the federal 287(g) program.
The Texas Legislature last year passed the 287(g)-program requiring sheriffs who run a jail or contract with a jail to take part in the 287(g) program, which took effect January 1.
Overall, the program allows local law enforcement immigration enforcement authority in specific situations.
Paxton was specific in noting that Dallas has not finalized an agreement with ICE while counties like El Paso, Bexar and Harris already have negotiations underway.
In a letter Paxton sent to Sheriff Brown, he also informed her that “The decision of whether to seek such an agreement is not yours to make.”
“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.
There are reportedly 14 state lawmakers from the Democratic party that have signed a letter for Paxton to “immediately desist from this clear political use of [his] office and the partisan harassment of a duly elected sheriff who has violated no law.”
The Texas Tribune reported on this situation last week and pointed out that while the Dallas County Jail did not have a partnership, they were still among the nation’s “top 10 jails for ICE detainers.”
An ICE detainer is basically a request from immigration to hold a person for deportation.
From September 2003 to late July 2025 North Texas saw at least 4,000 detainers.
To date ICE information reflects that it has at least 274 agreements with Texas sheriffs under the cooperative program. There are an additional 100 287(g) agreements with Texas law enforcement agencies other than county sheriff’s offices.
You can view the complete list of authorized law enforcement agencies at https://www.ice.gov/identify-and-arrest/287g For regional maps tracking which Texas counties have been mandated or forced to join visit https://txilc.org/287gmap/ or https://www.aclutx.org/news/status-287g-agreements-texas/.
Rita Cook is a world traveler and writer/editor who specializes in writing on travel, auto, crime and politics. A correspondent for Texas Metro News, she has published 11 books and has also produced low-budget films.
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