The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office entered into agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that will allow selected local officers to conduct immigration enforcement at the jail and “during their routine police duties.”

The Northern Nevada agency is one of 170 law enforcement agencies participating in the 287(g) program nationwide, but the only one in the state.

The agreements were signed Wednesday, according to an ICE database, which hadn’t uploaded the documents that would show specifics.

Douglas County — which includes the towns of Genoa, Gardnerville, and Minden — had a population of just under 50,000 people as of 2023, according to the U.S. Census. Seasonally, that population can exceed 65,000 due to its proximity to Reno, Carson City and Northern California,” according to the county.

Agreements

ICE can enter into three types of partnerships with local and state law enforcement agencies.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is now part of “The Task Force Model” and “The Warrant Service Officer program,” according to ICE.

The first acts as a “force multiplier” to “enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties,” ICE said. The latter “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,” the federal agency said.