Texas Democrats Want to Pull Sheriffs Out of ICE Deals. The Law Says Sign by Dec. 1.

Texas passed a simple rule last year. If you run the sheriff’s office in a county with more than 100,000 people, you sign a 287(g) agreement with ICE. That deal trains local deputies to handle some federal immigration work, mostly checking who is already sitting in the county jail on state or local charges and flagging the ones ICE wants. The deadline to sign is December 1, 2026. That is less than three weeks away.

Now the lawmakers who lost that fight in 2025 want to undo it.

On Monday, the first day lawmakers could pre-file bills for the 90th Legislative Session, Democratic state Sen. Jose Menendez and state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, both of San Antonio, filed bills to repeal or rewrite Senate Bill 8, according to The Texan. State Rep. Claudia Ordaz of El Paso filed House Bill 424, which would bar sheriffs in the program from carrying out immigration enforcement at schools, school bus stops and health care facilities.

“Today we filed legislation that reflects the needs of the constituents of Senate District 26,” Menendez said in a statement. “During this historic session, we have the opportunity to make real, meaningful change.”

The sheriffs are already on board

The law is working, and most of the sheriffs it covers have already signed up.

Texas leads the country in the 287(g) program, with 527 agreements covering 429 law enforcement agencies as of mid-September. As of November 4, 202 of the 232 sheriff’s offices covered by the mandate had deputized personnel, according to reporting by Todd Bensman in The Daily Signal. That is about 87 percent compliance with a month still to go.

ICE has been pitching the program to local departments for weeks, and it makes the case in plain terms.

The training is free, and the model most Texas sheriffs chose only touches people who were already booked into jail for something else. The point is that someone arrested for assault or drunk driving does not walk back out onto the street when ICE has a hold on him.

Harris County shows what the fight is about. Sheriff Ed Gonzales ended the county’s 287(g) agreement after he was first elected in 2016, and even so the county has reportedly sent more than 4,000 people into ICE custody since January 1, 2026. The question in Austin is whether the state keeps making that handoff routine everywhere, or lets each county decide whether to bother.

A wish list well past SB 8

The repeal bills did not come alone. The Texan counted a whole stack of immigration bills filed in the first two days:

House Bill 111 from Rep. Eddie Morales of Eagle Pass, and a matching Senate Bill 273 from Sen. César Blanco of El Paso, would bar state and local governments from leasing state park land for border walls, fences or barriers. HB 392 from Rep. Lulu Flores of Austin would let local governments limit staff cooperation with ICE at domestic violence shelters. HB 393 from Rep. Mary González of Clint would require a state license and monthly inspections for federal immigration detention centers in Texas.

HB 818 from Rep. Vincent Perez of El Paso would ban state and local agencies from signing, renewing or expanding civil immigration detention deals. And HB 1008 from Rep. Julio Salinas of McAllen would bar federal officers from wearing masks in Texas and require them to show their name and job title when dealing with the public.

That last one would have a state telling federal agents what to wear, which runs straight into the rule that federal law wins when the two collide.

The math in the Senate

Republicans still control the Texas Senate, and The Texan says the repeal effort may be dead on arrival there.

So the real question is enforcement, and that is where the incoming statewide officials come in. Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson voted against SB 8 as a state senator. He told KXAN the day after the election that he would use “discretion” when sheriffs do not comply.

“If somebody has legitimate law enforcement reasons for not having a 287(g) agreement … then I have the discretion to recognize that they are charged with keeping the public safe, and I don’t want to take steps that would prevent them from keeping the public safe,” Johnson said. He also said he does not see a reason to keep his own office’s 287(g) agreement in place.

That would be a big turn. SB 4, the state’s 2017 sanctuary city ban, lets the attorney general fine cities and even seek to remove officials who block cooperation with ICE. Attorney General Ken Paxton used it to win a $300,000 settlement from San Antonio. A law only bites if somebody is willing to enforce it.

The cities are moving first

Some local leaders are not waiting for January. We covered Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s order limiting when police call ICE last week. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has asked his police chief to rewrite the department’s ICE rules so they take effect when the new governor is sworn in, though he said the city will follow SB 4 “for now” because it is still the law, Austin Politics reported. In San Antonio, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has said she will ask the city manager to look at ending police cooperation with ICE altogether.

ICE’s answer has been short. “We remain disappointed that sanctuary politicians seek to limit cooperation with ICE, as our law enforcement are simply fulfilling their sworn duties to serve and protect our communities,” the agency told the Associated Press.

The agency has also been showing what the partnership produces in states that keep it.

December 1 comes first

The calendar favors the law as written. The 287(g) deadline hits on December 1. The new statewide officials do not take office until January, and the Legislature does not convene until the same month. Every sheriff who signs before then is trained and plugged in, and undoing that takes a vote the Senate is not expected to give.

Texas has about 2 million people living there without legal status, the second-largest number in the country. Whatever happens in Austin over the next few months will decide whether the state that did the most to help ICE keeps doing it. For now, the law is on the books, the sheriffs are mostly on board, and the clock is running toward December 1.