The Undermining of Public Safety by Immigration Enforcement
- UNT Dallas College of Law
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Skylar Meadows
Staff Editor (2025-2026)
The U.S.–Mexico border is often painted as a relentless hotspot for violent crime, drug trafficking, and illegal entry. At Texas’s southern border, federal and state authorities have launched massive enforcement efforts to combat illegal immigration and dismantle transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). Although the efforts began as a method to enhance public safety in the United States, these policies produced inhibiting effects amid undocumented communities—countless of which are victims or witnesses of crimes—who are afraid to cooperate with law enforcement out of fear of deportation. In 2017, an undocumented woman living in Houston contacted local police to report abuse from her ex-husband.¹ Instead of being protected, the officer she called reported her to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).² This incident provoked fear among the immigrant community that even calling the police—no matter the reason—could lead to detention or deportation.
What Are Transnational Criminal Organizations?
Transnational criminal organizations such as the Gulf Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, and MS-13 engage in criminal operations across borders and threaten U.S. national security.³ These organizations engage in violent crimes and traffic weapons, people, and drugs transnationally.⁴ TCOs operate their criminal networks through long-established “drug corridors” and corrupt political systems to ensure protection for their members.⁵ Organizations like TCOs pose a legitimate threat to the United States’ national security due to their volatile and violent nature, along with the smuggling of large quantities of drugs like heroin and fentanyl, fueling the ongoing opioid crisis. Specifically, in 2024, over 21,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the Mexican border.⁶ This mass quantity could wipeout over 9 million Americans.⁷ Mottos like that of MS-13, “kill, steal, rape, control,” accentuate the group’s malicious tendencies—but efforts to combat TCOs require a distinction between its members and their victims.⁸
TCOs Operating in Texas Border Towns
The range of TCOs stretches beyond the border and into Texas border towns where many Texan youths are targeted by TCOs through modern avenues like TikTok.⁹ At one point over 18% of Texas’s “juvenile felony gang referrals” stemmed from the southern region.¹⁰ Stretching back to 2011, the Texas Department of Public Safety warned parents about cartels recruiting their high school children, noting an instance of two juveniles who were coaxed into Mexico and subsequently held for ransom.¹¹ Because of this looming threat, residents in these towns—many of whom are undocumented—reach a crossroad between law enforcement and criminal exploitation.
Federal Turned State Enforcement and the Community
The complex and increasingly fragmented relationship between ICE and the people living in these towns, including immigrants, has become the center of many discussions. Immigrants, like the undocumented woman in Houston, find themselves in the United States after fleeing TCOs in their home countries¹² only to be targeted or characterized as a member of those very groups. Local law enforcement and ICE coordinate under the Immigration and Nationality Act to authorize state authorities to perform tasks otherwise reserved for federal officers under 287(g) agreements.¹³ These agreements deputize Texas’ local law enforcement to act as federal agents and “identify and remove criminal aliens” with a mission of “protect[ing] the homeland” and detaining those who seemingly compromise the United States’ welfare.¹⁴ Currently, there are over two-hundred 287(g) agreements with ICE in Texas.¹⁵ To further this initiative, Texas Governor Greg Abbott implemented Senate Bill 8.¹⁶ Senate Bill 8 requires county sheriffs with an operating jail to enter into 287(g) agreements with ICE to enforce immigration laws.¹⁷ Although these agreements are premised on keeping United States citizens safe and stopping illegal immigration, they operate on a task force model and embolden regular police officers with the same authority as a federal ICE agent.¹⁸ Initially armed with the objective of detaining criminal immigrants, over time, the line between the public’s safety and immigration enforcement has been bent and blurred.
Community Cost of Enforcement
Where a traffic stop once carried minor consequence, it may now result in deportation. These broad powers delegated to local agencies produced chilling effects within immigrant communities who fear detention and deportation over something as minor as speeding. This fear has rippled into a deterrence from the police and the justice system as a whole. In one instance, an undocumented woman in El Paso was detained outside of a courtroom after obtaining a protection order.¹⁹ Following this incident, the Texas District and County Attorneys Association voiced their concerns not only for immigrants, but also for the criminal justice system, as people are unwilling to report crime and cooperate in active investigations.²⁰ Undocumented victims and witnesses of crimes are reporting crimes at lower rates, empowering criminals to abuse the system because they know their victims will not blow the whistle on themselves at the same time. Prosecutors are facing widespread difficulties investigating and bringing cases for crimes like domestic violence and sexual assault due to non-cooperation.²¹ A survey by the ACLU also found that 54% of judges reported undocumented victims’ anxiety in coming to court has impeded adjudication.²² Immigrants’ fright rather than their record is utilized to undermine the public safety that the government has focused on upholding against TCOs.
Public Safety or Public Fear?
Without the cooperation of victims and witnesses, TCOs flourish. By driving the fear of abundant crime committed by immigrants into Americans, and the fear of deportation into immigrants, TCOs exploit and prey on this threat.²³ Organizations deliberately exploit immigrants’ silence to maintain their power and continue violent and exploitative practices. Fear of detention and deportation keeps immigrants from speaking out and therefore obstructs justice for themselves and others. Community policing in these areas has declined due to the eroded trust in communities through ICE’s cooperation with local authorities and emboldening agents to function as an intermediary for federal and state governments.²⁴ Without community assistance and accountability, prosecutors are losing key members necessary to bring justice and due process to defendants and victims' families, on top of already imposed risks like intimidation and retaliation by criminal organizations.²⁵ Further, continuous cuts to federal funds pose grave dangers to due process, as evidenced by the Refugee and Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services, the largest group in Texas providing legal aid to migrants.²⁶ Within the organization, over 200 people were laid off.²⁷ Without assistance, migrants, many of which are children, must appear in court without any help or support.²⁸ This in turn leaves individuals more vulnerable to a violation of their rights and reinforces the suppression of undocumented individual’s voices, specifically within the legal realm. The necessity of immigration policing may not be forgotten, but neither can crime management. Each is united to combat crime, where “immigration enforcement is used to manage crime, and criminal enforcement is used to manage immigration.”²⁹
Policing Policies in Transition
To withstand the surging fear and deterrence of law enforcement efforts, there is a growing need for policy change and reform. While this change is slow-moving and challenging to implement, attorneys are fighting back for their community and suing entities such as the Department of Homeland Security.³⁰ American Gateways, a non-profit organization serving migrants, alongside other groups, filed a lawsuit against the Department, the U.S. Attorney General, and ICE.³¹ They charged that these parties have violated migrant’s rights when ICE arrested 12 people at courthouses, noting that these unlawful arrests threaten “the integrity of the legal system.”³² Advocates like these uphold the values necessary for community safety and push back against overreach that has sabotaged the original target of criminal enforcement. By asserting claims against government entities, this also signals that the target of enforcement efforts should be shifted towards more imperative and dangerous crimes. Cameron County officials and citizens have reemphasized this apprehension, with Cameron County resisting 287(g) agreements with ICE and highlighting their concerns about people not reporting crimes and withering the county’s sense of safety.³³ These expressions of fear and lack of confidence in the community suggests that criminals and TCOs will be provided with cover as more and more cities transition into these agreements. While this local stride by Cameron County serves as a temporary shield over the community and its values, come 2026—when 287(g) agreements are mandated in cities with populations over 100,000—this will renew the confidence of TCOs and reinforce the anxious atmosphere surrounding border towns as they remain a target of both TCOs and law enforcement.³⁴
Conclusion
The policies intended to promote security are instead allowing TCOs to thrive. The fight against TCOs is long and complicated, but it requires public trust and cooperation. The unification of citizens and border towns against excessive enforcement demonstrates their commitment and efforts to uphold community safety through public policy. Local policies and communities that recognize the harm threatened by pushing people out under the guise of community enforcement and by inviting TCOs to feed off this community breakdown are crucial to preserving populations, their safety, and their rights. Immigrants’ fear, rather than their record, undercuts the government’s focus on public safety against TCOs. Immigration enforcement should retain its powers for trained and capable federal authorities. The return of sanctuary locations where undocumented individuals may not be detained, must be re-implemented so communities are not living in terror with every move. Increased access to legal immigration avenues, such as U-visas provided to victims of certain crimes, could foster trust and relationships with law enforcement and undocumented communities. The expansion of legal avenues for immigrants to operate encourages them to work with the law and strengthens the criminal justice system. Immigration policies must consider both national security and human dignity.
Sources:
[1] Rhian Lubin, A Houston Woman Called the Cops to Report Domestic Abuse. They Then Called ICE., The Indep. (June 24, 2025), https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/houston-woman-domestic-abuse-police-ice-b2776270.html.
[2] Id.
[3] Mexico’s Long War: Drugs, Crime, and the Cartels, Council on Foreign Rel. (last updated Feb. 21, 2025), https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/mexicos-long-war-drugs-crime-and-cartels [hereinafter Mexico’s Long War]
[4] Id.
[5] Sinaloa Cartel, InSight Crime (May 19, 2025), https://insightcrime.org/mexico-organized-crime-news/sinaloa-cartel-profile/.
[6] Mexico’s Long War, supra note 3; Drug Seizure Statistics, U.S. Customs & Border Prot. (last updated Oct. 24, 2025), https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/drug-seizure-statistics.
[7] Exec. Order No. 14193, 90 Fed. Reg. 9113 (Feb. 1, 2025).
[8] Treasury/ICE Sanctions Latin American Criminal Organization, U.S. Immigr. & Customs, https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/treasuryice-sanctions-latin-american-criminal-organization (Oct. 10, 2012).
[9] Violence Against Law Enforcement, Tex. Dep’t of Pub. Safety (last visited Sept. 28, 2025), https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/intelligence-counterterrorism/violence-against-law-enforcement.
[10] Id.
[11] Nick Valencia, Mexican Drug Cartels Recruiting Teens, Texas Officials Say, CNN (Oct. 14, 2011), https://www.cnn.com/2011/10/14/us/texas-mexican-cartels.
[12] Lubin, supra note 1.
[13] Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1357.
[14] Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287(g) Immigration and Nationality Act, U.S. Immigr. & Customs Enf’t (last updated Oct. 24, 2025), https://www.ice.gov/identify-and-arrest/287g.
[15] Id.
[16] See Press Release, Office of the Tex. Governor, Governor Abbott Signs Key Border Security Laws In Fort Worth (July 15, 2025), https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-signs-key-border-security-laws-in-fort-worth.
[17] Id.
[18] Cullen Neely & Selene Rodriguez, Taking Back Control: Why 287(g) Is Critical for Texas’ Future, Tex. Pub. Pol’y Found. (Apr. 2, 2025), https://www.texaspolicy.com/taking-back-control-why-287g-is-critical-for-texass-future/.
[19] Richard Gonzales, ICE Detains Alleged Victim of Domestic Abuse at Texas Courthouse, NPR (Feb. 16, 2017), https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/16/515685385/ice-detains-a-victim-of-domestic-abuse-at-texas-courthouse.
[20] Michael Morris & Lauren R. Sepulveda, A New ICE Age, Tex. Dist. & Cnty. Att’ys Ass’n (July–Aug. 2017), https://www.tdcaa.com/journal/a-new-ice-age/.
[21] See Press Release, Am. Civ. Liberties Union, New ACLU Report Shows Fear of Deportation is Deterring Immigrants from Reporting Crimes (May 3, 2018), https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/new-aclu-report-shows-fear-deportation-deterring-immigrants-reporting-crimes.
[22] Id.
[23] Transnational Gangs, U.S. Immigr. & Customs Enf’t (last updated Aug. 20, 2025), https://www.ice.gov/about-ice/hsi/investigate/transnational-gangs
[24] Meg Anderson, Police Say ICE Tactics are Eroding Public Trust in Local Law Enforcement, NPR (Mar. 30, 2025), https://www.npr.org/2025/03/30/nx-s1-5304236/police-say-ice-tactics-are-eroding-public-trust-in-local-law-enforcement.
[25] Transnational Gangs, supra note 23.
[26] Brian Kirkpatrick, RAICES, the San Antonio Nonprofit that Helps Migrants, Sees More Layoffs, Tex. Pub. Radio (Apr. 17, 2025), https://www.tpr.org/economy-and-labor/2025-04-17/raices-the-san-antonio-nonprofit-that-helps-migrants-sees-more-layoffs.
[27] Id.
[28] Id.
[29] Chapter Three Policing Immigrant Communities, 128 Harv. L. Rev. 1771, 1772 (2015).
[30] See Press Release, Nat’l Immig. Just. Ctr., Unlawful ICE Arrests at Immigration Courthouses Prompt Lawsuit by Advocates and Immigrants (July 16, 2025), https://immigrantjustice.org/press-release/unlawful-ice-arrests-at-immigration-courthouses-prompt-lawsuit-by-advocates-and-immigrants/.
[31] Id.
[32] Id.
[33] Dina Arévalo, ‘Not Proud of What’s Happening’: ICE Deal Delayed in South Texas County, MYSA (Oct. 7, 2025), https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/politics/article/cameron-county-ice-detainer-delay-21086379.php/.
[34] Id.
