Laramie County Sheriff’s Office topped nation in immigration arrests during April operation

During a week-long period last month, the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office had the greatest number of immigration arrests in the country of any local or state law enforcement agency certified to enforce immigration.

Between April 17-23, the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office made 53 immigration arrests through its Task Force Model agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the federal agency.

During that week, the Florida Highway Patrol and Oklahoma Department of Public Safety trailed the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office with 31 and 27 arrests, respectively, an ICE spokesperson confirmed in an email. The spokesperson didn’t clarify whether Laramie County’s immigration arrest numbers often rank high nationwide.

Forty-six of the arrests that week coincided with a publicized traffic operation that Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak dubbed “Truck Around Find Out, Operation Spring Break” in an April 25 Facebook post.

“Many of these folks are operating without commercial driver’s licenses, unsafe trucks, bald tires, their trucking companies have been revoked or suspended and shouldn’t be operating at all,” Kozak, sitting in his patrol vehicle and wearing a cowboy hat, said in the Facebook video.

ICE processed 40 of those arrests at a federal facility, so they didn’t go through the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office booking procedures, according to the office’s undersheriff, Chance Walkama. Deputies brought the other six to the Laramie County Detention Center. Three had local charges and previous misdemeanors, Walkama said in an email.

“So I think the message is clear,” Kozak said in his Facebook video. “Welcome to Wyoming. We want you to come. We want you to have fun, experience the cowboy culture that we have here. But if you’re going to come here to break the law, or you’re breaking the laws of our country, then turn around and go right back where you came from.”

Here’s how Wyoming communities cooperate with ICE

Laramie County sheriff’s deputies making more immigration arrests around Wyoming’s largest city

Laramie County deputies have conducted three focused traffic enforcement operations since the sheriff’s office inked a 287(g) Task Force Model agreement with ICE and launched a new traffic enforcement unit in June.

The task force agreement allows Laramie County deputies to conduct some immigration enforcement under ICE supervision. In October, Kozak announced that 25 deputies, as well as himself, had completed ICE training to conduct limited immigration enforcement. Now, 30 Laramie County deputies have finished ICE training, Walkama said.

The April traffic operation was the most recent of these efforts, each of which has resulted in a significant number of immigration arrests. Deputies conducted similar operations in November and February, which resulted in 40 and 32 immigration arrests, respectively. As of Friday, the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office has made 300 total immigration arrests since October 2025 through its task force agreement.

Following Trump’s push for mass deportations, several Wyoming law enforcement agencies have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE to conduct limited immigration enforcement. While some law enforcement leaders assert that participating with ICE through 287(g) keeps communities safer, immigration advocates warn that the partnerships risk eroding community trust. The agreements have sparked protests in Rock Springs and Cheyenne.

WyoFile's goal is to provide readers with information and ideas that foster constructive conversations about the issues and opportunities our communities face. One small piece of how we do that is by offering a space below each story for readers to share perspectives, experiences and insights. For this to work, we need your help.

What we're looking for:

Your real name — first and last.
Direct responses to the article. Tell us how your experience relates to the story.
The truth. Share factual information that adds context to the reporting.
Thoughtful answers to questions raised by the reporting or other commenters.
Tips that could advance our reporting on the topic.
No more than three comments per story, including replies.

What we block from our comments section, when we see it:

Pseudonyms. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish, and we expect commenters to do the same by using their real name.
Comments that are not directly relevant to the article.
Demonstrably false claims, what-about-isms, references to debunked lines of rhetoric, professional political talking points or links to sites trafficking in misinformation.
Personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats.
Arguments with other commenters.

Other important things to know:

Appearing in WyoFile’s comments section is a privilege, not a right or entitlement.
We’re a small team and our first priority is reporting. Depending on what’s going on, comments may be moderated 24 to 48 hours from when they’re submitted — or even later. If you comment in the evening or on the weekend, please be patient. We’ll get to it when we’re back in the office.
We’re not interested in managing squeaky wheels, and even if we wanted to, we don't have time to address every single commenter’s grievance.
Try as we might, we will make mistakes. We’ll fail to catch aliases, mistakenly allow folks to exceed the comment limit and occasionally miss false statements. If that’s going to upset you, it’s probably best to just stick with our journalism and avoid the comments section.
We don’t mediate disputes between commenters. If you have concerns about another commenter, please don’t bring them to us.

The bottom line:

If you repeatedly push the boundaries, make unreasonable demands, get caught lying or generally cause trouble, we will stop approving your comments — maybe forever. Such moderation decisions are not negotiable or subject to explanation. If civil and constructive conversation is not your goal, then our comments section is not for you.