GILLETTE—Authorities in Campbell County transferred nearly 100 people they arrested to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody over a 13-month period, public records show.
From May 1, 2025, to June 3, 2026, law enforcement agencies transferred 87 people in Campbell County to ICE custody. Sheriff’s deputies arrested 42 of those individuals, Gillette Police Department officers reportedly arrested seven and Wyoming Highway Patrol arrested the remaining 37, according to public records obtained by the Gillette News Record.
The Campbell County jail also has held one individual arrested by Crook County deputies who was later transferred to ICE custody.
It is unclear what prompted the initial arrests.
The Gillette News Record requested all incident reports and arrest reports for the 37 individuals transferred to ICE custody after being arrested by Wyoming Highway Patrol. The statewide law enforcement agency declined the request, asking for a blanket “release of information” from each individual named in the request.
Wyoming Public Records Ombudsman Darlena Potter, who helps resolve conflicts regarding records requests, called the patrol’s release of information requirement “really weird.”
Wyoming Press Association Attorney Chris Wages said that a blanket “no” can’t be invoked to withhold incident reports unless they are part of an ongoing investigation.
All 87 individuals have been released from the Campbell County Jail, according to records obtained by the News Record. The records offer a confusing, and at times contradictory, description of the initial arrests.
The Gillette Police Department only had one incident report for seven individuals county records show were arrested by police. The other six, Gillette Police Department Records Supervisor Lisa Barthel said, were arrested by either Highway Patrol or sheriff’s deputies. The police department would not possess those reports.
The Gillette Police Department did provide one incident report about a man from Guatemala, Engelver Pinula-Cota, who was arrested for stealing his ex-girlfriend’s phone worth about $1,000. He was charged with burglary, according to the incident report, and later transferred to ICE, according to other documents.
According to police records, the other six individuals who were reportedly arrested by police officers, according to sheriff’s office records, were not arrested by Gillette police.
Who is getting transferred?
Almost all individuals transferred to ICE custody came from Spanish-speaking countries.
More than two-thirds of ICE transfers were from Mexico. The rest, except for three individuals from Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, were from other Central or South American countries. The other most common countries of origin included Honduras and Guatemala, with six people from each, Nicaragua with four and Venezuela and Bolivia with two.
Responding officers were not able to discern the country of origin of another four people they arrested.
Other parts of Wyoming show that many ICE detainees are initially booked on non-violent charges.
Jackson radio station KHOL reported that in a little more than a year, Teton County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 241 foreign-born people. Among the 153 transferred to ICE, the most common charge — in 44 cases — was driving under the influence. The next most common charge among those transferred — 40 cases — was driving without a license.
Wyoming Highway Patrol is the state’s only law enforcement agency that works directly with ICE. It’s also one of the most cooperative under the controversial law enforcement agency’s 287(g) agreement. Those agreements authorize local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration duties to varying degrees of authority and federal compensation.
Local law enforcement agencies can choose three agreement models under 287(g), including the Jail Enforcement Model, Warrant Service Model and Task Force Model.
Gov. Mark Gordon signed Wyoming Highway Patrol’s Task Force Model agreement in July 2025. It is ICE’s most involved agreement, and it allows local agencies to conduct routine immigration enforcement. President Barack Obama phased out the Task Force Model in 2012, but the agreement model was revived by President Donald Trump’s administration in 2025.
Campbell County Sheriff Scott Matheny signed, in February 2025, a Warrant Service Officer agreement, which allows deputies to execute warrants for ICE. Part of the agreement also allows deputies to hold ICE detainees in the jail’s custody for $80 per night.
More records confusion
Confusion over ICE records in Wyoming has not been isolated in Campbell County.
A recent lawsuit against Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak alleges that the agency blocked access to evidence and issued a false report related to the immigration case of a Mexican citizen who lives in Laramie County with three U.S. citizen children, WyoFile reported.
The Mexican citizen, Mario Fabian Valenzuela Robles, was stopped in April because his truck’s taillights were “kind of dark” and the truck had “tinted windows,” according to a court filing reported by WyoFile. The initial arrest report of Valenzuela Robles stated that the arresting deputy’s camera was off, that a Cheyenne police officer helped with the traffic stop and that the Cheyenne Police Department collected and stored video footage of the arrest, the lawsuit states. A revised report contradicted the initial report, stating that Laramie County Sheriff’s Office had collected and stored the video footage. Attorneys representing Valenzuela Robles’ alleged the sheriff’s office also resisted providing evidence.
Kozak stated in a Facebook video that the records discrepancy the lawsuit references resulted from a copy-and-paste error.
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office also faces a lawsuit from an advocacy group, a church and a barbershop, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. The complaint alleges that the sheriff’s office signed its 287(g) agreements without public input or approval from Laramie County Commissioners.
Since that lawsuit was filed in May, the ACLU has also made public records requests related to the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office and six other Wyoming offices to investigate whether those counties also went through public channels before signing on to 287(g).
The request, filed June 5, asked for any documentation of county commissioners considering or voting on the sheriff’s office entering a 287(g) agreement and any records showing compliance with the Wyoming Administrative Procedures act.
Campbell County Deputy Director of Administration Kristin Young responded with a letter five days later, stating the county did not have any records responsive to the ACLU’s request.
Matheny, the Campbell County sheriff, said his office would fulfill the ACLU’s request according to Wyoming law as previously reported.
This story has been updated to clarify that of 241 foreign-born people arrested in Teton County, 153 were transferred to ICE. — Ed.
My thanks to law enforcement agencies working to protect the citizens within their jurisdictions.