GOP Lawmakers Are Pushing to Provide Local Law Officials With More Power to Arrest Undocumented Immigrants

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to assume office, pushback against his plans for mass deportations have been on the rise across the country.

From Boston mayor Michell Wu and D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser to Oregon governor Tina Kotek and California governor Gavin Newsom, the list of critics keeps growing.

Trump, nevertheless, has a growing list of supporters for his immigration policies as Republican-led states are increasingly introducing legislations across the country, with measures ranging from empowering local law enforcement to arrest individuals for immigration violations to facilitating cooperation with federal authorities.

As a new piece by The Associated Press reports, proposals in states like Missouri include creating a state-level offense for "improper entry by an alien," carrying penalties of fines and deportation. Another Missouri bill would incentivize reporting undocumented individuals by offering informants financial rewards and enabling private bounty hunters to detain them.

"We would be finding people who are in violation of this law, and we would be sort of hand-delivering them to the nearest port of deportation so that they could be removed in a safe and orderly fashion," said Missouri state Sen. Curtis Trent, who is sponsoring one of the proposals.

Another state which is making swift moves to support Trump's immigration policies is Texas, which has already caught the eye of the president-elect new "border czar" Thomas Homan. For analysts within the GOP, Texas and its $11 billion Operation Lone Star program could serve as a blueprint for the next administration's proposals. The plan has included deploying state resources to border enforcement, erecting physical barriers, and transporting migrants to cities outside the state.

The state's Land Commissioner, Dawn Buckingham, has also offered 1,400 acres of state land for potential federal deportation centers, with even more potential land also being suggested. Texas law officers also have made tens of thousands of arrests, including many for trespassing on private property.

Taking a cue from the Lone Star State, Republican-led legislatures in Iowa, Louisiana and Oklahoma passed measures allowing law officers to arrest people who are in the U.S. illegally. Utah, for example, announced plans to coordinate with federal officials on identifying undocumented individuals in the criminal justice system while Georgia enacted legislation requiring jailers to verify the immigration status of inmates.

North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature last month overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to enact a law directing sheriffs to comply with federal immigration agents' requests to hold inmates. That came after several Democratic sheriffs from urban counties refused to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As state legislatures prepare for the new administration, the divide between Republican and Democratic approaches to immigration policy is becoming increasingly pronounced, reflecting broader national debates on enforcement and integration.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 11 million undocumented immigrants reside in the U.S. Trump's campaign included proposals such as deploying the National Guard to support mass deportations, a plan that has faced significant resistance.