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Willacy County court tables proposed 287(g) warrant-service MOU pending legal review

Willacy County Commissioners Court · January 9, 2026

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Summary

The commissioners tabled a proposed memorandum of understanding to authorize deputies as ICE warrant-service officers under Section 287(g) after questions about scope and a request for legal review; sheriff described the narrow training (about eight hours online) and said broader task-force options were not being pursued.

Willacy County Commissioners Court on Jan. 8, 2026 tabled consideration of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) concerning Section 287(g) authority that would allow designated deputies to act as warrant-service officers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Sheriff (unnamed) told the court the option under discussion is the narrow warrant-service officer model: deputies would receive roughly eight hours of online training, remain at the county jail for processing, and serve civil immigration paperwork when ICE requests it. The sheriff said the county is not pursuing larger task-force enforcement models that require longer, out-of-area training.

Several commissioners said they had not received adequate time to review the proposed agreement and were concerned about potential downstream effects on state grant eligibility and interagency coordination. One commissioner asked for legal review before the court took final action. After discussion, a motion to table the item for legal review passed by voice vote.

The court recorded no formal changes to county operations at the meeting; the tabling means the MOU will return to the agenda for further review once legal counsel and commissioners have had time to evaluate the document. The sheriff said other jurisdictions in the region have approved similar arrangements, but commissioners emphasized the need for a careful, written legal opinion before moving forward.

Next steps: the court directed staff to provide the MOU and relevant materials to county legal counsel for review and to return the item to a future agenda with counsel’s recommendations.