Jackson-based Wyoming Immigrant Advocacy Project has launched a hotline to report and verify sightings of federal immigration enforcement on both sides of the Tetons.
Trained volunteers at the new hotline, Teton Area Rapid Response Network, will respond to reports by showing up in person wearing blue vests with a butterfly logo on the back. The effort is part of a national grassroots movement to provide different resources such as food, shelter, legal training and clear information to immigrants and their surrounding communities.
“If immigration conducted itself transparently and took accountability, these networks would not be necessary,” said Emily Gomez, WIAP’s executive director.
Once the volunteers determine whether immigration agents are present, they’ll update the community via social media and other public message boards.
The goal is to put rumors to rest or alert folks that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is, indeed, in town.
Immigration enforcement agents are active weekly in Teton County’s jail, picking up several undocumented people each week over the past year, according to Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr. KHOL has reported ICE sightings twice in 2025 in Teton County and none so far in 2026.
Even though federal officers have been spotted around town only a handful of times, WIAP’s growing network of volunteers want to be prepared at any moment so people can feel more comfortable going about their day-to-day lives.
However, just the presence of SUVs with federal license plates can cause group chats to light up and anxiety to rise, organizers said, and plenty of federal land managers in town means more opportunity for confusion.
Verifiers, as they’re called, are instructed not to interfere with law enforcement. By being present during interactions with ICE, however, Community Response Coordinator Vanessa Chavarriaga said the hope is that volunteers can remind people what rights they have.
“Since the second Trump era started, a group of Latino community members came together and decided this was necessary to help dispel the fear and anxiety that we were all feeling in our bodies every single day,” Chavarriaga said.
The response network was, in large part, created out of a need to bring clarity to the chaos, according to Gomez.
“The administration has made it a priority to conduct immigration enforcement in this very obscure and aggressive fashion,” Gomez said. =
That manner of enforcement has caused widespread stress that ripples across both sides of the Tetons. In at least one instance last year, rumors circulated online that federal license plates could be ICE, but that was not corroborated. Those anxieties continued through the summer, resulting in low attendance at some events at the county fair.
Gomez hopes that having a watchdog presence can help document any infractions, if they occur, to keep agents accountable.
A lack of consistency in the current administration’s enforcement approach has meant breaking from past precedents, which is part of why Gomez believes the network is necessary to keep people informed on the latest changes.
Earlier this year, a memo leaked from the Department of Homeland Security suggested that federal agents would no longer heed the requirement to obtain a judicial warrant before forcing entry into private spaces.
In March, however, Department of Homeland Security secretary nominee Sen. Markwayne Mullin said, if sworn in, he would uphold the constitutional requirement that federal immigration agents use judicial warrants, reversing a shift spearheaded by his predecessor, Kristi Noem.
