It’s been just under six months since Donald Trump returned to the White House, and with it, the president’s much anticipated crackdown on immigration.
Since January, arrests are up across the country, doubling or tripling in many states in the last year, according to recently released data, which UC Berkeley Law sued to obtain. About three-quarters of those arrested in 2025, have no serious criminal convictions, according to an analysis from CNN.

In Wyoming, arrests are up 136% from last year. In neighboring Idaho, that increase is up nearly ten-fold, at a 924% increase.

From March to early July, ICE picked up 51 people from the Teton County jail. Earlier this year, Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr said the number was near zero. Carr said he doesn’t know where people go after they leave his jail.

The Trump administration’s focus on immigration is in line with his predecessors. Both the Obama and Biden administrations had similarly aggressive approaches to immigration enforcement.

Under both Trump terms, however, enforcement trends more visible and arrests target more than those with serious criminal backgrounds.

In large cities, the headlines the last six months have been dominated by reports of ICE raiding workplaces, knocking on doors at homes or breaking into vehicles to make arrests on the road. But in the Tetons, ICE is largely opting for a more behind-the-scenes approach, one that has largely involved tapping local jails and encouraging counties to sign agreements to do work on behalf of the federal agency.

ICE has been confirmed publicly at least twice in the Tetons in recent months. First, the agency was spotted in a visit to the Latitude 43 apartments in Jackson in early February. KHOL has yet to receive a response to a public records request for what happened. Then ICE made an appearance in Driggs, Idaho, in April, an instance in which family members of those arrested called a “deceptive setup.”

Otherwise, the federal agency’s presence on a local level has been lowkey.

 Teton County starts to honor ICE “detainers” 

Transfers to ICE are up, in part, because in March, Carr backtracked on previous policy to start honoring the federal agency’s requests for extended holds, or detainers. Doing so buys ICE more time to pick people up from the jail.

Capitalizing on the new policy, ICE agents in Casper have started regularly sending agents within the extended hold period, a 48-hour window, which Carr said wasn’t happening as often before.

Now, it happens “every single time,” Carr told KHOL.

In Jackson, ICE seems to prefer using the jail as an access point to pick up immigrants as opposed to making arrests out in the community, according to immigrant advocate Rosie Read.

If the jail were not honoring detainers without a judge’s signature, ICE would be “forced to go find those people in the community,” said Read, executive director and founder of the Wyoming Immigrant Advocacy Project in Jackson.

ICE-Denver, the branch of the federal agency that oversees enforcement in Jackson, has not responded to KHOL’s multiple requests for comment and public records.

State and federal laws likely to continue the upward trend 

The surge in arrests is expected to continue, with the help of more policies going into effect this summer.

Though Teton County is not one of the five Wyoming counties that have signed onto partnerships with ICE, neighboring areas have. As of July, the entire state of Idaho has signed onto what’s known as a 287(g) agreement. That means local law enforcement can assist ICE at varying levels of participation, impacting those who commute to Jackson from Teton Valley.

With Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” getting Congress’s stamp of approval, the federal agency’s budget has also ballooned to $170 billion, meaning there’s likely no sign of ICE slowing down anytime soon.

In Wyoming, lawmakers passed a slew of laws this spring aimed at making life in the Cowboy State more difficult for immigrants.

As of July 1, driver licenses issued to non-citizens are now invalid, which applies to those granted in 19 states and the District of Columbia. “Sanctuary” designations are also now banned statewide.

Driving with one of these out-of-state licenses could now result in charges for driving without a license, which can lead to an arrest and a call to ICE if someone lacks proof of citizenship.

It’s hard to say how law enforcement across the state will put the new law to use.

There’s plenty of room for discretion, according to Colonel Tim Cameron, the administrator who oversees all of Wyoming’s Highway Patrol.

Cameron can only speak to the direction his agency is taking with the new law, but reiterated that officers will need reasonable suspicion before asking a driver about their citizenship status during a traffic stop. That could come from a license having some version of the words “Not a citizen” printed, or if a driver willingly shares information about their status.

“The trooper would have to be able to show that, one, they had a non-resident alien driver’s license and they were not legally admitted into the United States,” Cameron said. International visitors would need to prove they had a visa or other legal way to enter the country, he added.

For those that cannot provide proof, the trooper would make a call to their watch center and ICE would “run them through” an internal database.

If the driver has a criminal warrant and isn’t a citizen, then the trooper could arrest them and book them in a local jail, as officers would treat any other active warrant. Another option would be to call ICE and hold the driver until a federal agent arrives.

“Or, ICE may say ‘Please get some information and provide to us about where they are living, where they’re going,’” Cameron said, emphasizIng how this approach is another option.

A trooper could also just write a citation, send that information to ICE and release the driver, Cameron added.

“That’s typically how that goes,” Cameron said.

How to enforce what critics call an unlawful law? 

Critics have said that if not enforced with caution, the law could encourage racial profiling or discrimination, which is illegal under the 14th amendment.

Immigration advocates, including Read and a spokesperson for the Wyoming chapter of the ACLU, also anticipate challenges to the legality of the driver’s license law.

Cameron said these are valid concerns.

“I think it’s a great point that they’ve made,” he said. “It’s also incumbent upon our agency to make sure troopers understand the constitutional ramifications.”

He’s referencing the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search or seizure.

“We still need reasonable suspicion to inquire,” Cameron said, reiterating that the protection extends to all traffic stops.

Allen Thompson thinks the law can be enforced without risking civil rights. He’s the executive director of the Wyoming Association of Chiefs of Police, an organization that offers guidance to departments around the state when there’s new legislation that concerns law enforcement.

He cited how law enforcement cannot stop a vehicle just to check a driver’s license or insurance status.

“There has to be a reason for the stop. So, I’m not sure how this law could be used to target certain groups because we didn’t have the ability to pull over anybody for no reason before this law went into effect,” Thompson said.

Still, advocates are grappling with telling those with precarious status not to drive. In Wyoming, public transportation is often limited and communities car-dependent.

Read has also worried that with all the legislation seeking to drive out immigrants, Wyoming communities face a loss that can’t be summed up in numbers or the so-called “economic factor” that often dominates headlines.

“It feels so futile to try and capture the reasons why immigrants are such an important part of this place and why I love it so much,” Read said. “Whether it’s from linguistic diversity, and our kids learning from each other about cultural differences, and what that does to their world view. Immigrants bring so much value.”