As part of Trump crackdown, Sweetwater County to take Teton County immigration detainees
New agreement signals an escalation in immigration deportation objectives.
JACKSON — Sweetwater County is inking a deal with federal immigration enforcement officers that could see undocumented immigrants arrested in Teton County transferred to southern Wyoming as soon as June.
The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s office plans to sign a multi-level agreement with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that enforces immigration law, to make its Rock Springs jail a holding facility for ICE.
It will also accept detainees from Teton, Lincoln and Sublette Counties.
This is a change from years past, when people suspected of immigration-related crimes who were arrested in Jackson Hole would be held for up to 48 hours in the Teton County jail and then either released, or picked up by ICE and transferred to Casper before being sent on to a regional ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado.
Now, Sweetwater deputies will pick up ICE detainees in Teton County and bring them to Rock Springs.
“Our facility has been certified by ICE since 2020 to temporarily house federal detainees for 72 hours or longer,” said Deputy Jason Mower, spokesman for the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office. “This means we can lawfully hold ICE detainees at the Sweetwater County Detention Center until ICE picks them up.”
Sweetwater County is also poised to earn millions in federal dollars with the detention contract.
The shift in handling people placed on a federal “detainer” or “ICE hold” is not surprising to Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr, who said that the agreement between ICE and Sweetwater County will loosen logistics for ICE agents who travel from Casper up and over multiple mountain passes to pick people up from Teton County jail.
“ICE is doing exactly what they said they would do,” Carr said.
The agency has sought to make it easier to arrest and remove undocumented people on 48-hour holds. Carr said he had only learned about Sweetwater’s new contract with ICE last week.
Immigrant advocates were unsurprised and said the policy will instill fear — which they see as the point.
“The Trump administration, both on the campaign trail and in office, has made really broad promises to the effect of accomplishing the biggest deportation in history,” said immigration attorney Rosie Read, founder of the Wyoming Immigrant Advocacy Project. “They are also looking to save money.”
“[The government] is doing everything they can to make people so uncomfortable that they leave,” she said in reference to the government pushing for self-deportations. “It’s all designed to create fear and drive people out.”
Sweetwater County’s move comes after the Trump administration called for an increase in undocumented individuals’ arrests while asking for $175 billion to help ICE acquire more detention space and staff. While Congress has not authorized the request, ICE has received other federal money to hit national deportation goals: a million people in the first year of the Trump presidency and 15 to 20 million people over his term.
In addition to accepting detainees from other counties, Sweetwater County will train deputies so they have federal authority on immigration-related investigations and arrests.
The Sweetwater County Detention Center will also serve as an intermediary holding facility between local jails and the Aurora ICE Processing Center. The 1,532-bed facility outside of Denver, Colorado typically is about 75% full, according to Trac.com. The Aurora facility has been touted as one of the nation’s two main arteries for immigration detention.
By moving detainees to Sweetwater within the 48-hour holding period in Teton County, detainees can be held indefinitely in the Rock Springs facility until ICE moves them to Aurora or a Las Vegas facility.
A federal boost
With a 205-bed detention center that is certified for safety and security through ICE, enhancing Sweetwater County’s contracts with ICE was a natural next step, Mower said. While details are still being hashed out with the federal government, the Sweetwater jail could stand to make up to $3 million in detention center operating revenue by housing regional detainees, the spokesperson added.
That’s up from an average of $300,000 on general federal contracts that the detention center currently holds — such as providing beds for federal marshal arrests.
“As part of its expanded cooperation with ICE, the agency recently increased its number of dedicated beds for federal detainees from 15 to 30 at the Sweetwater County Detention Center — reflecting the county’s strategic location along the Interstate 80 corridor between Denver and Las Vegas,” read a news release on April 10.
The Sweetwater jail is typically between 30% and 35% full, which made the increase feasible.
“It does make some sense for us to do this and help other counties like Teton and Sublette,” Mower said, referring to Sweetwater’s strategic location. “We are taking one for the team.”
Two detention center employees will receive ICE training for picking up detainees, Mower said. He anticipates another two to four deputies going through a six week ICE training this summer or early fall.
While in Teton County, Sweetwater County deputies may carry out ICE-related tasks, Carr said. But the Teton County Sheriff said his office must be notified if that happens.
While in theory federally certified Sweetwater County deputies could work alongside ICE agents in other counties, the likelihood of that happening is small, Mower said. Deputies with ICE training will be focusing on “serious criminals,” and not going door to door to ask people for citizenship papers, he added.
“Our intention is not to have deputies hunting people based on immigration status,” the spokesman said of partnering with ICE. “Basically, it gives us limited authority on the patrol side.”
Serious criminals
Sweetwater Sheriff John Grossnickle says the decision to partner with ICE “isn’t about politics.”
“It’s about what we’ve seen happen right here in Sweetwater County,” Grossnickle said in the statement last week. “We all remember Saaverda Villa — a twice-deported sex offender who came back and raped a local 8-year-old girl in 2022. That’s the kind of threat we’re trying to stop.”
Carr, however, said that ICE has picked up 16 detainees in the last six weeks since he’s been implementing a new 48-hour hold policy. ICE placed the majority of those people on holds because they crossed the United States border without permission — a federal felony — not all because of violent offenses.
Carr said he only sees abbreviated reports on why ICE is choosing to come get Teton County immigration detainees. For the most part, he said he trusts the reasons that ICE is giving his office for the transports “as much as you can trust the federal government.”
He did credit his relationship with ICE agents in Casper in trusting the process.
Lt. Kristine Sanders, who heads the Teton County Detention Center, said that arrests made in Teton County that have resulted in detention holds and ICE pick ups have ranged from not having a valid driver’s license to probation violations, false imprisonment, peace officer interference and protection order violations.
Such arrests may lead to detention holds once Teton County determines whether or not an arrested person is documented.
Aside from crossing the border illegally, Mower acknowledged that the people arrested and marked for deportation have committed a range of crimes. But he said the likelihood of ICE issuing detainers upon arrests has increased as deportation has become a national priority.
ICE has entered more than 700,000 administrative immigration warrants in the National Crime Information Center. This warrant allows ICE to detain undocumented people without a judge’s signature.
By entering these warrants into NCIC — a database typically used by law enforcement to flag people wanted for criminal offenses — ICE then can enable state and local law enforcement agencies to detain individuals for civil immigration violations during routine stops or arrests.
This means someone can be flagged and held solely based on ICE’s administrative determination, without the need for judicial oversight.
“Priorities ebb and flow, especially with immigration,” said Mower. “We are at the mercy of those priorities.”
Mower said of the administrative warrants, there are more chances to run names and get a return on a detainer, he said.
But as far as the added authority from ICE bestowed on Sweetwater County, Mower said it’s better to have “some say,” over local control, he added.
“There are situations where it will give us some additional power and authority to do our jobs. [These contracts] give us extra tools in the tool bag to get dangerous people off the streets. We’re people first, cops second,” he said when it comes to law enforcement.
ICE did not return a request for additional information in time for press deadline.
This story was published on April 16, 2025.