(San Francisco, CA)—As DHS continues its campaign to deport millions of people, the role of state and local law enforcement agencies remains central to its mass detention and deportation project. Years ago, involvement with ICE was primarily a local issue at the city and county level, but recently more and more states have enacted statewide statutes. These laws take various approaches to either limit participation in immigration enforcement or mandate local assistance to federal immigration authorities. 2026 has been no exception, with dozens of new laws across the country adding to an increasingly complex spectrum. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s (ILRC) updated map of state law on immigration enforcement captures not just new statutes enacted this year, but all those in effect across the country that bear on immigration enforcement and detention.
In spite of the threats and rages of the second Trump administration, many states have stepped up by passing or strengthening existing legislation defending immigrants during 2025 and 2026. Nonetheless, the map shows how much further states need to go to protect their residents. Meanwhile, other states continue to conscript their own local agencies to do ICE’s work for them. The ILRC’s map shows which states have gone the furthest in passing legislation that protects their communities, which have taken some steps, which have done nothing, which have prevented their localities from taking protective measures, and which have actively passed laws mandating state and local law enforcement agencies to collude with ICE in ways that significantly harm their residents.
The second Trump administration has dedicated huge federal resources to achieving its mass deportation agenda, but it is still state and local agencies that power the immigration enforcement machine. Nationally, the majority of ICE arrests transpire because another law enforcement agency transferred a person directly to federal immigration agents. ICE is notified of every single person arrested anywhere in the country, and their fingerprints are automatically checked against immigration databases. This gives local law enforcement tremendous immigration enforcement power because they can thus initiate potential deportation against anyone merely by bringing them into custody. Following this, many police and jails across the country hand people in their custody directly to ICE agents. And whether or not local law enforcement are actively working with ICE in this fashion, they are also reckoning with a federal agency causing chaos and violence in their communities as well.
Illinois and Oregon continue to have particularly strong and comprehensive laws protecting immigrants and fall into the most protective category on the map. Six other states now have fairly broad sanctuary protections: California, Colorado, Maine, New Jersey, Vermont, and Washington.
Seven states have enacted meaningful, if more limited, protections against local and state actors’ involvement in immigration enforcement: Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, and Virginia. An additional five states, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, and Rhode Island, have taken smaller steps toward reducing immigration enforcement.
However, so-called “blue states,” including those with pro-immigrant state laws, still lack meaningful safeguards against the onslaught of hateful federal policies. While several states have substantial limitations on immigration enforcement, they still transfer many immigrants directly to federal immigration officials for detention. This map is an urgent call to action for elected officials who oppose the mass deportation agenda to defend immigrant communities. Strong sanctuary policies work--that is why the federal government is always attacking them.
On the other side, states have aggressively expanded the mass deportation engine with their own laws. Texas has converted substantial portions of its criminal legal system to primarily focus on immigration enforcement issues, pioneering new ways to weaponize their state criminal laws against immigrants. Florida has enrolled thousands of local agents into the 287(g) program. Texas, Florida, and other states have passed laws punishing their own localities for passing sanctuary policies and undermined the impact of these protective policies. These states and their anti-immigrant political agendas have been further empowered under the current administration.
Nine states have enacted laws mandating some level of participation in immigration enforcement by local agencies or banning sanctuary policies: Kansas, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
Six states have broad anti-sanctuary laws with significant negative effects for their immigrant residents: Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Eight states have fairly comprehensive anti-sanctuary laws that force local agencies to be significantly involved in deporting their constituents: Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, West Virginia.
Six states have not enacted any law addressing immigration enforcement one way or the other: Alaska, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The ILRC will continue monitoring developments in state legislatures and encourage communities to urge state elected officials to do more to resist and protect our neighbors, friends, families and loved ones from the cruel and destabilizing impacts of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.