The Post Falls Police Department has made 15 arrests for immigration violations since formalizing a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with most of those arrests coming during a brief joint training operation in late August.

The department signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE in July, authorizing local officers to enforce federal immigration law. Mayor Randy Westlund issued a press release Thursday updating the public on the agreement’s status.

“Post Falls is fully operational with our 287(g) partnership with ICE,” Westlund told the KHQ. “Some say there aren’t many illegal aliens in North Idaho, but we arrested 13 during the first few days in a joint operation with ICE by checking some job sites. We’re up to 15 now.”

The initial 13 arrests came between August 24 and August 28, when ICE agents accompanied Post Falls officers on patrol for training purposes. Officers established immigration violations through admissions, available records, or other evidence gathered during those operations. Two more arrests followed in the week after training concluded.

The department noted it does not expect arrest numbers to remain as high as they were during the active training period, though officers will continue applying what they learned.

The Post Falls agreement is part of a broader national trend. The Department of Homeland Security reported in June that more than 2,000 law enforcement agencies across the country hold active 287(g) memorandums of agreement with ICE. State and local departments partnering with ICE accounted for roughly 13 percent of the nearly 50,000 arrests ICE made in July, the highest monthly total of the second Trump administration. That figure included about 6,500 arrests by state and local agencies.

National data from July showed that more than half of those arrested had not been convicted of any crime and were not facing criminal charges at the time of arrest. Less than a quarter had a prior criminal conviction.

Idaho has also expanded immigration enforcement at the state level. At the start of September, ICE formalized an agreement with the State of Idaho to broaden collaborative work between state prison staff and federal immigration authorities. The Idaho Corrections Agency’s role in federal immigration enforcement was formalized under a separate arrangement earlier this year.

Mayor Westlund also used the update to raise concerns about Flock cameras and called for state-level reform on how law enforcement agencies receive notifications, though the press release did not elaborate on specific proposals.