Two San Antonio Democrats in the Texas Legislature have filed bills to repeal the state law that forces county sheriffs to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), opening the immigration fight of the 90th Texas Legislature weeks before it even convenes. State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer filed House Bill 123 and State Sen. José Menéndez filed Senate Bill 99 on Monday, November 9 — the first day lawmakers could pre-file bills for the session that begins on January 12.
The bills would repeal Senate Bill 8, the 2025 law that requires every Texas sheriff who operates a county jail, or contracts with a private vendor to run one, to seek and enter a 287(g) agreement with ICE. Those agreements, named for a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act, authorise trained local officers to carry out certain federal immigration enforcement duties. The repeal would let sheriffs end existing agreements and would eliminate the state grant program that helps pay for them.
Source: Texas Public Radio / T-SPAN
Under SB 8, 287(g) participation is not a local choice but a state mandate with teeth: sheriffs face a compliance deadline of December 1, 2026, and the attorney general can sue sheriffs who refuse in their home counties. The programme historically focused on people booked into county jails, but the San Antonio Current noted recent investigative reporting showing some departments have used the agreements to turn routine traffic stops into immigration enforcement.
A Dec. 1 deadline comes first
The repeal bills cannot pass before the mandate bites. As of mid-September, 202 of the 232 sheriff's offices required to participate had an agreement, leaving 30 without one, according to figures cited in reporting on Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin's position. An early-2026 analysis of ICE data counted 299 active 287(g) agreements across 241 Texas law enforcement agencies in 186 counties — roughly one in five such agreements nationwide. Goodwin, a Democrat who unseated Republican Dan Patrick on November 3 and will preside over the Senate, said on NewsNation on November 9 that she wants the agreements undone, arguing that "we need to make sure law enforcement is not aiding and abetting ICE here in Texas."
San Antonio, where the bills come from
Both authors represent San Antonio, where the local picture is split. The Bexar County Sheriff's Department has a 287(g) agreement, while the San Antonio Police Department cooperates with federal immigration authorities only under specific circumstances. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones told the Current she would meet City Manager Erik Walsh to discuss how the city could reevaluate its partnership with ICE, and council members Teri Castillo, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and Ric Galvan have proposed an ordinance limiting when city police contact ICE, calling for a special meeting on the matter by November 17.
"During this historic session, we have the opportunity to make real, meaningful change," Menéndez said in his statement. "Our team has worked alongside our constituents, advocates, and experts to craft solutions to better assist our community." Martinez Fischer told Texas Public Radio's The Source on Tuesday that sheriffs should have the discretion to run their own departments, and that he sees a "fair shot" at passing the repeal in the House, where Democrats won a majority in the November 3 election for the first time since Republicans took control in 2003.
Democrats control the Texas House for the first time in decades and won every statewide office on Nov. 3, but Republicans kept a 19–12 majority in the Senate. Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa takes office after the Legislature convenes on Jan. 12 — so any repeal needs Republican votes in the Senate and her signature.
That arithmetic shapes the whole fight. "There'll probably be a lot of horse trading, concession making, getting things done, and that's the way the Legislature's always worked," Martinez Fischer said. Alongside the ICE repeal, he has filed House Bill 257, which would require regular independent audits of Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott's multibillion-dollar border enforcement programme, and companion bills HB 111 and SB 273 would limit where Texas agencies and local governments can agree to let border barriers go up, according to a roundup of the first-day filings.
What happens next
Nothing in the bills changes the law today: the December 1 SB 8 deadline still stands, and the attorney general's power to sue noncompliant sheriffs remains in force while the Legislature is out of session. The bills will be taken up after January 12, and their first test is whether the Democratic House passes them and whether any Senate Republicans break ranks. For immigrant communities — including the large Punjabi diaspora in Houston and Dallas and the truckers who cross Texas daily — what is at stake is practical: under 287(g), a booking into a county jail, or in some departments a traffic stop, can become the first step of a federal immigration case, which is exactly the pipeline the repeal bills are written to close at the state level.