The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wyoming filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office contending that the agency didn’t follow Wyoming law when it signed three 287(g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
These agreements deputize local law enforcement agencies to perform duties otherwise conducted by federal immigration agents, including arresting people within the community and holding them in the county jail until they’re removed to a federal detention center.
Laramie County's sheriff signed them in May and June of 2025.
”It's a very big policy decision, and normally when big policy decisions like this are going to be made, it's something that one government official doesn't decide unilaterally,” said Andrew Malone, the ACLU of Wyoming’s senior attorney. “In this case, that is what happened. The sheriff [Brian Kozak] decided he wanted to enter these agreements, and he signed three different agreements for the three different varieties of the 287 models that they have.”
ICE describes the three models as:
- The Jail Enforcement Model is designed to identify and process removable aliens — with criminal or pending criminal charges — who are arrested by state or local law enforcement agencies.
- The Task Force Model serves as a force multiplier for law enforcement agencies to enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties.
- The Warrant Service Officer program 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 American Immigration Council says the 287(g) program has evolved over time, but in the past, “The 287(g) program has been costly for localities, has historically targeted individuals with little or no criminal history, and has harmed the relationship between police and local communities.”
Malone said Wyoming law dictates a process for making such a policy decision.
“There's very clear case law that says it's county commissioners, not the county sheriff, that have the authority to enter into contracts, and here it was the sheriff that entered into the contract,” he said.
Malone said the other problem is that the county commission didn’t approve the financial costs of this enforcement.
”The sheriff needs to go to the county commission first and have it approved before he can incur expenses, and once again, just tens of thousands of dollars, if not more, of expenses have been incurred under these agreements.”
The law also requires a public comment period before such a policy decision can be adopted, Malone said.
”There's supposed to be this open process where people can learn that this is going to happen, and they can speak to their elected officials about it and tell them if it's something they approve of or not. Generally, they just call it a ‘notice and comment period,’ and that's something that's guaranteed under the Wyoming Administrative Procedures Act. And once again, that just didn't happen here,” he said.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the immigrant advocacy group Juntos, the Universalist Unitarian Church of Cheyenne and Drew’s Barbershop. Malone said they weren’t given an opportunity to voice their opinions about these agreements in advance and that the decision has cost each of them money and time.
He also claims the barber shop was injured more directly when the sheriff’s office detained one of their employees.
”Losing him as a barber in the shop really affected their business and their bottom line, their ability to make a profit,” Malone said. “As a result of that, they've ultimately decided that they're going to sell the business and no longer run it.”
Thirteen agencies have signed 287(g) agreements in Wyoming. Malone said he wasn’t sure how many had failed to comply with Wyoming statute. Currently, the ACLU of Wyoming’s lawsuit focuses only on the Laramie County’s Sheriff Office agreements.
Wyoming Public Radio reached out to Sheriff Brian Kozak for comment but hadn’t received a response as of Wednesday evening.
Kozak has said in public Facebook posts that his office is “just doing our job, and we're taking action when we come across violations of state law.”
