Department of Louisiana Of Wildlife And Fisheries (LDWF), usually responsible in part for policing wildlife refuges and enforcing local hunting laws, has helped U.S. immigration authorities detain at least six people under federal supervision this year, according to documents obtained by WIRED through a public records request.
According to the documents, LDWF signed a memorandum of understanding with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in May that gives the wildlife agency the authority to detain people suspected of violating immigration laws and transfer them to ICE custody. Since then, at least six men have been placed in ICE custody after contact with or arrest by LDWF officers. The documents show that at the time of contact with LDWF officers, neither man had faced criminal charges. ICE knew that the two men were legally in the country when the agency detained them.
The documents also show that at least one “joint patrol” took place in a Louisiana wildlife management area during which LDWF agents were accompanied by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Coast Guard officers. The memorandum of understanding between ICE and LDWF does not mention CBP or the possibility of working with the agency under the agreement. However, the documents show that the relationship with CBP may have been facilitated by LDWF’s partnership with ICE.
LDWF has partnered with ICE under the agency’s 287(g) program, named after a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows state and local officers and employees to perform certain functions of U.S. immigration officials, such as investigating, apprehending, detaining, or transporting persons suspected of violating immigration laws.
From December 3exactly 1,205 agencies have partnered with ICE under the 287(g) program. (Eight agencies are currently awaiting approval from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.) About 1,053 of those agreements have been signed this year, which means enrollment is up 693 percent compared to the end of 2024. LDWF is one of only three state wildlife agencies – the others are the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources – that public ICE says has signed 287(g) agreements with ICE. records. All three agreements were signed this year.
The apparent expansion of the 287(g) program this year has received relatively little attention. However, LDWF documents show that registered state and local agencies actively detain people innocent of any crime, facilitating their arrest and eventual deportation.
CBP did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment. LDWF responded to questions about one specific incident, but did not respond to WIRED’s full request for comment. ICE spokeswoman Angelina Vicknair – after reviewing the men’s names, dates and locations of their detention, all known circumstances of their detention and all other identifying information contained in the documents – concluded that the agency did not have sufficient information to determine whether the men were in custody, released or deported. She also said the number of men WIRED asked about, seven, was “too big of an ask,” adding: “We’ll have to narrow it down.”
According to LDWF An “After Action Report” obtained by WIRED finds three men in federal custody after the agency conducted a joint patrol with five U.S. Coast Guard officers and an unknown number of CBP agents on Aug. 11 on Lake Borgne, which is located in the sprawling Biloxi Marsh sophisticated in Louisiana. The report said officers were looking for people allegedly violating state regulations to harvest oyster seeds.