County ICE agreement fails amid prevailing statute

Months of protests, letters to the commissioners and a lawsuit all led up to the Tuesday morning Gallatin County Commission meeting, where the county’s controversial 287(g) agreement with ICE was put to a vote.

The meeting room was packed with people opposed to the agreement, many of whom had been protesting outside of the courthouse beforehand.

In January 2020, former Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin signed the 287(g) agreement with Homeland Security, which gives properly trained detention center officers authority to hold certain inmates for an extra 48 hours and serve ICE’s administrative warrants.

But because the commissioners never signed this agreement, four county residents have filed a lawsuit against the commissioners, questioning the agreement's legitimacy.

In 2021, the Montana state legislature passed section 27-16-801, which strips away local authority and requires detention centers to hold ICE detainees anyway.

Section 27-16-801 states: “A public safety officer as defined in 44-4-401(2) who is in possession of an immigration detainer request issued by a federal immigration agency shall arrest a person who is already in custody and the subject of an immigration detainer request.”

Sheriff Dan Springer spoke before the public comment, explained the 287(g) agreement and said the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office must hold people if they’re on an immigration hold.

Springer said Gallatin County is part of ICE's Warrant Service Officer model. This means that if someone was detained, ICE would inform the detention center, and someone at the sheriff’s office would assert the warrant, rather than an ICE agent.

“We are following the state statute. We have not used 287(g) since May of 2025,” Springer said. “So, nothing is going to change, regardless of what happens today.”

Springer said there are currently no deputies or detention officers that are warrant service officers under the program.

“If someone is foreign-born, I don’t care where they were born, if they’re foreign-born, that is a notification, ICE is notified,” Springer said. “This is standard across the country.”

Springer shared that no one comes into any facility only on an immigration hold; they’ve all been arrested on another charge.

“We have large criminal justice issues in this community that affect the quality of life for everybody,” Springer said. “Hopefully we can deal with this today and then we can start moving forward with issues that are more at a local level, rather than a national level.”

“You’re probably going to hear some stories, most of them don’t have all the truths or all the facts,” he said about the forthcoming public comment.

Brown shared that the commissioners received “a tremendous amount of written comment” over the past couple of months.

More than 15 people spoke during the public comment portion for the agenda item and except for two speakers, everyone was in opposition to the agreement.

Austin Haynes requested the commissioners to ratify 287(g).

“This is basic law and order. When someone breaks our laws and is here illegally, we should not be releasing them back into Gallatin County,” Haynes said.

He spoke about living in Seattle and how “activist policies” made the city less safe for working families.

“These (activist) groups are using our own legal system against us to block basic cooperation with federal law enforcement,” Haynes said.

Joy LaClaire was opposed to the agreement.

“I acknowledge that frequently, laws are made that do not enhance liberty or justice,” she said.

She said ICE has been expanded and given tremendous resources that “defy the established procedures of our republic.”

Another speaker in opposition to the agreement was Julia Shaida, who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the county commissioners, along with Tegan Bauer, Erin Levy and Susan McGrath.

Shaida called ICE a “rogue agency.”

“It violates their right to privacy and to due process, and it detains people arbitrarily and in inhumane settings,” she said.

Shaida said that 50 people have died in ICE custody since 2025 — and ICE will no longer be reporting on deaths of recently released detainees.

After everyone spoke, Commissioners Zach Brown and Jennifer Boyer voted to end the agreement.

“I trust the community that elected me; the majority of those folks would not want me to vote to participate in a proactive agreement that is not required under law by this administration,” Brown said.

Boyer said she has received more than 150 emails about the 287(g) agreement and thanked everyone for being “present and engaged” throughout the process.

She said she's been learning more about 287(g) by speaking to the sheriff and county attorney.

"I really appreciate and I understand the level of community concern," she said. "And I appreciate stories, the community impacts that have been shared, personal experiences, or experiences of neighbors and friends."

Speaking only for herself, Boyer shared that she is okay with ICE being contacted if someone committed a violent felony. But she said she wouldn't be comfortable if they had only committed a misdemeanor.

"Our job is to maintain community safety health and well-being, that is the focus and I do believe the agreement compromises that goal," Boyer said.