New Evidence Shows America Wants To Enforce Immigration Laws

Rhetoric versus reality, plainly illustrated.

If you read or watch the news, you see constant marches and riots over the enforcement of immigration laws. Activists chase ICE and Border Patrol personnel in the streets, screaming insults and blowing whistles to alert others to the presence of Trump’s mean immigration cops. High school students storm out of their classes (behind their activist teachers, following authority as they protest against government) to “march against hate,” attacking people who disagree with them.

If you believe what you see, the enforcement of immigration laws is becoming less popular by the day, as Americans rally to protect the people leftists call “our undocumented neighbors.” They seem to be winning. The streets say that America wants a large and permanent population of illegal immigrants, consuming a growing set of public resources and driving the explosive growth of both government and government-funded NGOs. We want the Biden years back. We’re for this, passionately, and we want as much as we can get:

But a remarkable story from the Spanish news site El Pais reports this week — the link is to the English-language version — on a development that will only be surprising if you believe what you see on CNN. “Local police agreements with ICE are skyrocketing in the United States, reigniting debate over public trust,” the headline says. From that story:

An analysis of official data by FWD.us, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for comprehensive immigration and criminal justice reform, shows that 1,168 police departments had officers enrolled to assist ICE at the end of January, up from 135 during the Biden administration and 150 at the end of Donald Trump’s first term…

According to data published by ICE itself, as of February 13, 2026, the agency had signed 1,415 memoranda of understanding under section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, covering 40 states. In the first few weeks of 2026 alone, nearly 150 new local agencies joined the program.

You can find extensive information about 287(g) agreements, which allow state, local, and tribal police agencies to formalize agreements with ICE to cooperate in the enforcement of immigration law, on the ICE website. There are nuances to the agreements, which can take several different forms, but overall the regularly updated numbers on the ICE website are a little higher than the numbers in El Pais: “As of February 17, 2026 5:10 pm ICE has signed 1,427 Memorandums of Agreement for 287(g) programs covering 40 states.” A dozen additional agencies have applications pending for new 287(g) agreements.

So as protests and riots against ICE grow more common, formal state and local cooperation with ICE grows far more common. The activist narrative collides with the increasing consensus on the value of routine institutional cooperation to enforce America’s longstanding immigration laws.

The people have actually spoken. And not by blowing those idiotic whistles.

This week, in an outburst of alarm, mainstream journalists have begun to notice. In Democrat-captured states, leftist politicians are fighting to end 287(g) agreements in order to protect the massive stream of free public money that flows to their party’s client classes. On her first day in office, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed an executive order forbidding the agreements between ICE and state (but not local) police agencies. She protected the Democratic machine’s high-cost clients. And Maryland Governor Wes Moore just signed emergency legislation forbidding 287(g) agreements in that state.

But put those two things together: Democrats and the media oppose 287(g) agreements with a growing sense of panic, while the actual number of those agreements in effect is growing rapidly. Side by side, those two realities tell you quite a bit about what Americans really want, and how well Democrats really represent that consensus.

Chris Bray is a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army, and has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at “Tell Me How This Ends,” here.