DALLAS COUNTY — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday opened an investigation into Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown over her alleged refusal to seek a formal cooperation agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Paxton criticized a comment Brown made in October about putting "no additional efforts" into entering the federal 287(g) program.

"The decision of whether to seek such an agreement is not yours to make," Paxton wrote in a Wednesday letter to the sheriff. The Texas Legislature passed a law last year requiring sheriffs who run a jail or contract out jail operations to take part in the 287(g) program, which gives local law enforcement certain immigration enforcement authority.

Since the law took effect on Jan. 1, sheriffs in El Paso, Bexar and Harris counties have started negotiating or finalized an agreement with ICE, while Dallas County has not.

Brown said the law gives her until Dec. 1 to comply, and that her office already cooperates with federal immigration authorities in a manner similar to what would be required under the 287(g) program's jail enforcement model. "My comments reflected my position that Dallas County already engages in cooperation with federal authorities and does not view duplicative administrative measures as necessary to achieve the same public safety objectives," Brown said.

The jail enforcement model under the 287(g) program allows local law enforcement to identify people for immigration enforcement when they are already in custody with pending or active criminal charges. The warrant service model lets officers serve and execute administrative warrants on people in their jails and hold them for ICE. A task force model allows local law enforcement agencies to question individuals about their immigration status during routine policing work.

Without a 287(g) partnership, the Dallas County Jail was among the nation's top 10 jails for ICE detainers. Between September 2023 and late July 2025, the Dallas County Jail accounted for more than 4,000 ICE detainers, surpassing Bexar County during the same period, according to figures from the Deportation Data Project. Harris County Jail led the country with more than 9,500 ICE detainers during the same period, also according to the Deportation Data Project.

A 2017 state law requires sheriff's offices, which operate county jails, to honor ICE detainer requests. As of May 12, ICE data show Texas sheriffs have signed 270 agreements under the 287(g) cooperative program, including some counties registering for multiple models. The Bexar County sheriff entered into a warrant service agreement in October, and a spokesperson said the El Paso County agency intends to pursue the warrant service model.