The Louisiana Department Of Wildlife And Fisheries (LDWF), typically responsible in part for overseeing wildlife reserves and enforcing local hunting rules, has assisted United States immigration authorities with bringing at least six people into federal custody this year, according to documents WIRED obtained via a public record request.

According to the documents, LDWF signed a memorandum of agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in May, which gives the wildlife agency the authority to detain people suspected of immigration violations and to transfer them into ICE custody. Since then, at least six men entered ICE custody after coming into contact with or being detained by LDWF officers. None of the men were issued criminal charges at the time they came into contact with LDWF officers, the documents show. Two of the men were known by ICE to have been in the country legally at the time the agency took them into custody.

The documents also indicate that at least one “joint patrol” took place in a Louisiana wildlife management area in which LDWF agents were accompanied by officers with Customs and Border Protection and the US Coast Guard. The memorandum of agreement between ICE and LDWF makes no mention of CBP or the possibility of working with the agency as part of the agreement. However, the documents indicate that a relationship with CBP may have been facilitated through LDWF’s partnership with ICE.

LDWF partnered with ICE under the agency’s 287(g) program, named after the section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that enables officers and employees at the state or local level to perform some of the functions of US immigration officers, such as investigating, apprehending, detaining, or transporting people suspected of violating immigration law.

As of December 3, exactly 1,205 agencies have partnered with ICE through the 287(g) program. (An additional eight agencies are currently pending approval from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.) Some 1,053 of these agreements were signed this year, meaning enrollment has increased by 693 percent compared to the end of 2024. The LDWF is one of just three state wildlife agencies—the others being the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources—that have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE, according to public ICE records. All three agreements were signed this year.

The marked expansion of the 287(g) program this year has generated relatively little attention. However, the documents from the LDWF indicate that the state and local agencies enrolled are actively detaining people not guilty of any crimes, and facilitating their arrests and possible deportation.

CBP did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment. The LDWF answered questions about one particular incident, but did not respond to WIRED’s complete request for comment. ICE spokesperson Angelina Vicknair—when given the men’s full names, the dates and locations they were detained, all known circumstances of their detainment, and all other identifying information included in the documents—said that the agency did not have enough information to determine if the men were in custody, released, or deported. She also said that the number of men WIRED asked about, seven, constituted “too large a query,” adding, “We’ll need you to narrow it down.”

Per a LDWF “After Action Report” obtained by WIRED, three men were taken into a federal custody after the agency conducted a joint patrol on August 11 with five US Coast Guard officers and an unknown number of CBP agents in Lake Borgne, which is in Louisiana’s sprawling Biloxi Marsh Complex. According to the report, the officers were looking for people allegedly violating state statues for seed oyster harvesting.

The report claims that no one on the patrol witnessed any crimes or civil violations. Despite this, it says that “the federal partners were able to identify and detain 3 subjects for immigration issues,” adding that “all arrestees were transported by Federal agencies to detention centers.” It’s unclear why these individuals were singled out, but all three appear to have Hispanic last names.

The report claims that two of the arrested individuals legally entered the US but overstayed the amount of time they were allowed to remain in the country. The third person, it claims, entered the country illegally and had an unspecified “criminal history.” Given the report’s sparse information about the men, it’s unclear if any of them have been deported or remain in federal custody.

Some time after the August 11 patrol, the report claims, a CBP lieutenant asked LDWF about organizing “future patrol opportunities and joint patrols” with the agency.

“After this operation, CBP has reason to believe that future patrols will be beneficial and productive,” the report reads. “They also expressed how much they learned traversing some of the more specific waterbodies with the local knowledge of our agents, they were able to learn new routes across the area that will allow them to extend the effectiveness of their independent patrols.”

In an August 22 email obtained by WIRED, LDWF regional captain Tim Fox says that CBP wanted to organize future patrols “on a less formal basis.” It’s unclear whether a less formal patrol would still produce a paper trail.

According to a later LDWF incident report, the agency arrested three additional people in October, all of whom were taken into ICE custody. The men were issued civil citations for going to a wildlife management area and using their firearms without the proper permits, the report says, but none were issued any criminal charges.

The report claims that on October 23, two LDWF officers patrolling the Maurepas Swamp Wildlife Management Area heard several gunshots in an area where “people often illegally target shoot.” The suspects, three men in their twenties, all cooperated with LDWF at the scene. When asked to show their weapons, they showed the officers a pistol, an AR-15, several magazines, and a few dozen rounds of ammunition. The officers confirmed that none of the firearms were stolen. One of the men also showed the officers where they had been shooting.

The men showed identification—a Louisiana ID card, a Honduran ID card, and a Honduran passport, respectively—when asked, but did not have the appropriate permits for being in a Wildlife Management Area and firing a weapon. The two men who fired weapons were issued three civil citations, while the one who didn’t was issued two. At some point during LDWF’s interactions with the men, the agency called immigration authorities.

“Due to the unknown immigration status and them possessing firearms, we made contact with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI),” the report reads. A HSI agent reportedly told LDWF that one of the men had a final removal order, one had “pending” immigration proceedings, and one man had legal parole to be in the US. When LDWF contacted the local ICE field office, ICE sent two agents to the scene.

Upon arrival, the report claims, “The ICE Officers made several phone calls and they decided to take custody of all three subjects.” All three men were placed in handcuffs and escorted to the ICE officers’ vehicles.

It’s unclear if any of these men were deported, but based on information in the report, none of them appear to currently be in ICE custody, according to the agency’s detainee locator.

In response to WIRED’s public record request, LDWF also included an incident report filed on October 6. The report describes a man who allegedly littered “roofing shingles, nails and other assorted building materials” near Cypress Lake for which he was issued one civil citation for “gross littering.” It notes that the man didn’t speak English, but “was cooperative during this investigation” with the help of a translator.

The incident report says that the man had “unverified citizenship,” but it does not specify whether he was taken into ICE custody. When asked about the incident and why it was included in the response to WIRED’s public record request, a LWFD spokesperson clarified that the agency reported the man to ICE after he was issued the littering citation.

The spokesperson said that as a result of the man’s “unverified citizenship,” the LDWF “forwarded the citation and report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’).”

“LDWF has no further information regarding Mr. Garcia’s current status or location,” the spokesperson said.