The Kenner Police Department has received hundreds of thousands of dollars for salaries, equipment and technology this year through an agreement with the federal government that allows officers to assist with immigration enforcement activities.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement paid Kenner police nine payments totaling $590,020.83 since February for its participation in ICE's 287(g) Program and its Task Force Model, according to interviews and records provided to The Times-Picayune.
That program allows officers to take on some federal immigration enforcement during routine police duties, like identifying undocumented immigrants during a traffic stop and report that information with ICE.
The funding boost underscores how Kenner's police department, one of only two in the New Orleans area that has joined the federal program, has helped to pay for equipment and officers in the Jefferson Parish city. The payments this year are the first Kenner has received since signing up for the 287(g) program in March 2025.
The money arrived in the months after the U.S. Border Patrol swept through the New Orleans area and arrested over 560 undocumented immigrants in "Operation Catahoula Crunch," which was focused on neighborhoods and businesses in Kenner.
Deputy Chief Mark McCormick, who detailed the payments and what they were used for in an interview Tuesday, said the funds were not related to Kenner's participation in those activities. Axios New Orleans this week first reported that Kenner received a series of payments earlier this year from DHS and ICE.
Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley has supported stricter immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump's administration. He has also welcomed federal resources to help get undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds off the street, which Conley argues is a longstanding issue in the city.
"As we've stated throughout, the 287(g) partnership is a force multiplier—not a mission changer," Conley said in a prepared statement.
Conley added that local law enforcement has always shared immigration information with ICE after an arrest is made, and that the 287(g) program expedites that process so that officers can return to their patrol duties quicker.
Critics have said that the 287(g) agreement puts undocumented immigrants without a violent criminal background into situations where even a minor traffic violation can result in a deportation.
Rachel Taber, an organizer with Union Migrante, said the payments for 287(g) are "disgusting" but "unsurprising."
"What this money has led to is the incentivization for racial profiling, stopping people for minor infractions and separating families that have been contributing for decades and are the lifeblood of the local economy," Taber said.
Funds for salaries, tech
The payments from the 287(g) agreement include a $212,500 transfer from DHS in February 2026 to grant the department a $100,000 one-time stipend for vehicles and another $112,500 stipend for officer equipment, equaling $7,500 per officer at the time.
Another $225,000 payment from ICE made in May 2026, the largest payment of the nine, offered two stipends of $112,500 each to cover equipment and technology for officers certified by 287(g).
The department received another $148,000 in July for its participation in ICE's Unaccompanied Alien Children Safety Verification Initiative, in which local departments conduct federally-requested welfare checks for undocumented children who entered the country without a parent or legal guardian and their sponsors.
McCormick said the department was assigned 24 children to check on and received payments based on their efforts to locate each child, like verifying home addresses or school enrollment. The department located four of the 24 children, McCormick said, and received the $148,000 for equipment, technology and training.
McCormick added that the welfare checks did not involve further intervention or immigration enforcement like deportations, but that the department would not know if ICE conducted immigration activity afterward.
The department also received six smaller payments ranging from $367.80 to $1,927.52 as reimbursement for time Kenner police officers spent processing immigration detainers, as well as overtime for work locating the 24 children.
McCormick said that the department seeks reimbursement for wages only when officers arrest an undocumented person that has an immigration detainer placed on them, and that officers do not change how they conduct daily operations for the 287(g) program or its incentives.
He also denied that payments for conducting immigration enforcement resemble a "bounty hunter" system, a comparison that's been raised by national media and immigration enforcement critics.
"We aren't doing immigration checkpoints, we aren't doing those things," McCormick said. "I don't see where it could ever be construed as a bounty because we are still arresting the same individuals we would before, the only thing now is we are processing the ICE detainers. It gives us more resources."
Kenner police have processed roughly 200 immigration detainers since the start of the year, compared to roughly 300 between March and December of last year, McCormick said. The department did not start tracking detainers until it joined the 287(g) program.
Kenner, which has the largest Hispanic population per capita in Louisiana, came under a national spotlight during "Operation Catahoula Crunch" in December as Border Patrol concentrated operations to the city's predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods. Gregory Bovino, then the Commander-at-Large for the agency, publicly lauded Conley at the time for his assistance after the department ordered a police blockade to separate federal agents from media and protestors following behind.
Border Patrol deployed to several Democratic-led cities last year to conduct immigration sweeps and arrest thousands of undocumented immigrants. Those operations ended at the start of the year after two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis were fatally shot by Border Patrol agents.
Kenner police currently have 28 officers trained and eligible for reimbursement under the 287(g) program out of roughly 148 sworn officers. The department operates with a $25.2 million budget from the city's general fund, majority of which is allocated to personnel costs.
KPD initially joined the 287(g) program under the jail enforcement model, which gives police officers access to databases to see whether a suspect in jail has an immigration detainer placed on them rather than requesting federal agents to screen suspects themselves. The department then joined the task force model in October 2025.
McCormick said the department is still waiting on training and access to resources under the jail enforcement model.
The only other law enforcement agency in the New Orleans area participating in the 287(g) program is the Gretna Police Department, who joined in August 2025 under the task force model.
Chief Brett Lawson said Wednesday the department has 12 officers enrolled in the program but has not received any payments from DHS or ICE thus far.