ICE vehicles, pictured here in front of the U.S. Capitol.
Kentucky Representatives have presented a bill that would require law enforcement to work with ICE in a task force model program.
Kentucky House Bill 47 was introduced in January with 19 republican Republican representatives sponsoring it. The bill would require Kentucky State police Police to partner with ICE in a task force model program as a part of section 287(g). The program would delegate officers at a state and local level, as the ICE website describes, “perform specified immigration officer functions under ICE’s direction and oversight.”
Section 287(g) currently operates four models that function as follows:
- The Jail Enforcement Model is designed to identify and process removable aliens — with criminal or pending criminal charges — who are arrested by state or local law enforcement agencies.
- The Task Force Model serves as a force multiplier for law enforcement agencies to enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties.
- The Tribal Task Force Model serves as a force multiplier for tribal law enforcement agencies to enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight under Title 25 USC 2804.
- The Warrant Service Officer is a program that allows ICE to train, certify and authorize state and local law enforcement officers to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens in their agency’s jail.
Several Sheriff’s offices in the Jackson Purchase counties, including McCracken, Carlisle, Marshall, Hickman, and Fulton have already signed up to be a part of the program as of February 2026. In an interview with WPSD, Marshall County Sheriff Matt Hilbrecht noted that he sees the agreement as another resource for his department.
“We don’t have intentions of going out and doing big roundups and going across the state trying to round up illegal immigrants,” Hilbrecht said. “That’s not the purpose here for us. The purpose for us is just to be able to detain someone should we come across them and have the need to,” Hilbrecht said
State Rep. John Hodgson, R-Louisville, the bill’s sponsor, said the state “should partner with ICE to be trained in immigration law enforcement, work in federal-state task forces, and help expel the invaders while minimizing disruption to the lives of innocent persons.”
Gov. Andy Beshear has been critical of the bill, arguing there is a difference in training between ICE and the Kentucky State Police.
“You’re supposed to have a level of due process,” Beshear said. “There’s supposed to be very particular questions and parts of an investigation. You know, immigration law isn’t about seeing somebody that looks like they might not be from the United States and throwing them in handcuffs. That’s not who we are as people, and that’s not what immigration law allows,”.
House Bill 47 is currently awaiting approval in the House Judiciary Committee, where it has been since Jan. 21.
“The bill will not move,” said Rep. Michael Pollock, R-Campbellsville, one of 19 Republican sponsors of the bill, about his hopes of the legislation progressing.
