As federal government officials ramp up immigration enforcement and deportations across the country, Fort Worth city officials appear to have no plans to actively target, identify or detain undocumented residents.
Five City Council members — Alan Blaylock, Carlos Flores, Mia Hall, Jeanette Martinez and Chris Nettles — told the Fort Worth Report that the council has not had formal discussions on how to approach immigration enforcement locally. Mayor Mattie Parker and the other five council members did not return requests for comment.
Flores and Martinez, the council’s two Latino members, said they would not support a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, citing concern about the impact it could have on Fort Worth’s Hispanic communities and their trust in law enforcement.
“I know that if it came down to a vote, I would vote no,” Martinez said.
Debates over local immigration enforcement come amid a recently passed state law mandating Texas’ county sheriff departments join formal agreements with ICE if approached by the agency. While the law doesn’t force cities to enter such agreements, a few Texas municipalities have opted into them — including Keller.
Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has made increasing daily arrests and deportations a priority. On the first day of his second term, Trump issued 10 executive orders and proclamations related to immigration and promised to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
Some Fort Worth council members said the city’s police officers have enough duties without acting as immigration officers. Nettles said he wants police focused on keeping Fort Worth safe rather than officers spending resources “trying to hunt down those who may not be fully documented.”
As the only Black man on the council — and as a pastor and activist — Nettles said he feels a moral obligation to stand with Black and brown residents across the city in staunch opposition to collaboration with ICE, unless federally mandated.
“My legacy and my stance on this council will always be to empower the people, the everyday residents who are trying to make a living for them and their families,” Nettles said. “I’m going to fight with the majority of our community and what their stance is.”
Keller partners with ICE. Will Fort Worth follow?
Last week, Keller City Council members voted unanimously to formalize the city’s participation in the 287(g) program, a partnership with ICE that enables local officers to screen the immigration statuses of people they arrest and book into jail. Under the agreement, Keller police will flag undocumented inmates for ICE.
Flores said he’s concerned about the negative impact a similar partnership with ICE would have on public trust with local law enforcement in Fort Worth. If the Hispanic community sees the city as actively helping ICE, it could contribute to a fear of police.
Blaylock did not share whether he would support a 287(g) partnership in Fort Worth. Hall declined to comment on the program, saying she needed more information on it.
During a July ceremony in Fort Worth with Trump-appointed U.S. border czar Tom Homan, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law the measure requiring all county sheriff offices that operate a jail to join 287(g). If ICE offers the agreement, sheriff departments must participate, according to the law.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office has had the formal partnership with ICE since Sheriff Bill Waybourn took office in 2017. In 2020, Tarrant County commissioners voted 3-2 to renew the partnership indefinitely.
The program broadly deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law.
This includes expanding departments’ authority to identify and process undocumented residents with pending or active criminal charges, enforce “limited immigration authorities with ICE oversight during routine duties,” and serve and execute administrative warrants on “removable aliens” in a jail, according to ICE’s website.
All Tarrant County jail inmates are subject to having their immigration statuses screened.
Rosa Maria Berdeja, an immigration attorney in Fort Worth, said via email that undocumented persons booked into jails have the same rights as anyone else — including the rights to remain silent and to due process.
In Texas, law enforcement officers may require individuals to provide identifying information such as their name, address and date of birth during a lawful detention or arrest.
“Beyond that, they are not required to provide additional information and they may choose to remain silent,” Berdeja wrote. “However, individuals should never give false information regarding their immigration status or present fraudulent documents.”
Fort Worth and other Tarrant cities that don’t have their own jails use the county’s — meaning that although city police aren’t checking for immigration statuses themselves, those arrested and booked into Tarrant jail are subject to a screening.
The Keller agreement, championed by Mayor Armin Mizani as he campaigns for a seat in the Texas House, formalized the city’s long-standing practice of partnering with ICE, Mizani said.
As of Aug. 13, two other municipal police departments in Texas are partnering with ICE through 287(g): the Splendora Police Department just north of Houston and the Nixon Police Department east of San Antonio.
Keller’s population is about 47,000 residents, according to the city’s estimates. That’s less than 5% of Fort Worth’s current population of more than 1 million residents, according to recent census estimates.
Nettles said he would not support Fort Worth opting into the 287(g) program but worries municipal departments may be forced to take a more active role in immigration enforcement.
He believes Fort Worth has already conceded local control to the federal government by suspending the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs with a split council vote after the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal grants from government entities that continue DEI programming.
In April, Trump signed an order directing federal agencies to identify “sanctuary jurisdictions” — localities that have policies or regulations that impede federal immigration enforcement. While federal officials cannot force cities to formally partner with ICE, it can withhold federal dollars and contracts from cities that refuse to.
A 2017 state law effectively banned sanctuary-like policies. When the law was passed, Fort Worth was the only major Texas city to not join a lawsuit challenging it. A federal appeals court upheld that law in 2018.
Flores, newly elected at the time, wanted the city to join the lawsuit, describing the state law as “neither just nor fair.” He was one of four council members in 2017 who voted unsuccessfully to join the suit.
Leaders want fairness, compassion from new top cop
As the city looks to hire its next police chief, Nestor Martinez, president of Fort Worth’s chapter of the National Latino Law Enforcement Organization, said he’s looking for a chief who will prioritize educating Hispanic communities about what immigration policies are in place and what police officers are legally allowed or required to do.
In a July interview with the Report, he noted Tarrant County’s yearslong participation in 287(g), saying residents may need to be reeducated on the program.
“You see all those postings on Facebook that ‘ICE is over here’ and ‘Police are out here enforcing immigration issues.’ A lot of times, that’s just not the case. It’s just officers that are doing things that we’ve done for a long time,” he said, adding that officers aren’t arresting anyone randomly.
The Fort Worth Police Department’s communications team did not return a request for comment.
Council member Martinez wants the next police chief to carefully consider the city’s large Hispanic population. In the 2020 census, the demographic represented 35% of Fort Worth’s population.
In 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 18.6% of Fort Worth’s residents, or about 170,918 people, were foreign-born. Of that amount, about 62%, or nearly 106,000 people, were not U.S. citizens.
Flores wants the new chief to continue the police department’s focus on “building community trust, transparency, inspiring department excellence, and safety for all residents.”
“As a Latino city leader, my vision for a police chief is someone who will prioritize fighting crime without compromising the trust and cooperation of our diverse community,” Flores said in a statement. “The best way to do that is through clear communication, empathy, fair practices and a demonstrated commitment to equitable policing.”
Some officials said they want local law enforcement to focus on educating Fort Worth’s Hispanic communities and building trust rather than enforcing immigration policies or assisting ICE.
Council member Martinez said undocumented residents shouldn’t call attention to themselves from law enforcement by risking crimes such as speeding or drinking and driving.
Martinez said her office takes calls from residents citywide to help them through any immigration concerns. She is planning a listening session with the police department in October and working on creating a nationalization clinic.
As a Hispanic leader, she said she wants to use her position of power to empower and educate residents, rather than navigating a partnership with ICE.
“I would be very concerned for our Latino community if (an ICE partnership) was a direction we were taking,” Martinez said. “We, at least in Fort Worth, I feel, support our Latino community.”
Cecilia Lenzen and Drew Shaw are government accountability reporters for the Fort Worth Report. Contact them at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org and drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org.
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