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Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025

Does the Mesa Police Department work with ICE to check the immigration status of those booked into jail?

Tallulah Anne, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
yes

The Mesa Police Department coordinates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to check the immigration status of people booked into jail. Since 2020, the department has operated under a 287(g) agreement, which grants trained local officers the authority to perform certain federal immigration duties.

The 287(g) program is authorized under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Mesa participates through the “Jail Enforcement Model,” which enables officers to question people in custody about immigration status, issue detainers and initiate deportation paperwork. 

Mesa PD is one of five Arizona agencies with jail-enforcement agreements, along with the state Department of Corrections and the sheriff’s offices in La Paz, Pinal and Yavapai counties. An agreement with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office was terminated in 2011 after a federal probe found widespread profiling of Latinos. 

Nationwide, 122 law enforcement agencies had jail-enforcement agreements as of August 2025.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.

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