HELENA — Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen says he has signed an agreement with federal authorities that will eventually lead to Montana Highway Patrol troopers assisting with enforcement of immigration laws.

The Montana Department of Justice reached a memorandum of agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. It says MHP troopers and agents with DOJ’s Division of Criminal Investigation will be able to go through federal training, then have the authority to interrogate people for suspected immigration violations and arrest and detain people they believe are in the U.S. illegally.

(Watch the video to hear from Attorney General Knudsen about the new agreement.)

Knudsen said the agreement was a way for the state to support the Trump administration’s efforts to step up immigration enforcement and detention. He said his officers have previously had to contact federal authorities and have ICE come in when they suspected someone was in the country illegally.

“They're going to be basically deputized as federal immigration agents, have all those same federal powers,” said Knudsen. “So we're not having to wait on the side of the road or at a local jail for ICE to show up and do their job; we're going to be trained and we can do it for them.”

Knudsen said it’s becoming increasingly common for his officers to identify people they suspect are in the country illegally – DCI agents often through drug investigations and MHP troopers often through traffic stops. He said that suspicion generally arises in the course of an investigation, as officers find someone doesn’t have valid identification.

The training will be conducted primarily online. There’s no specific timeline yet for when the first DOJ employee will complete the training and begin doing these operations.

Knudsen said ICE will cover the cost of training, but that the number of officers who go through it will be limited at first by time and staffing needs. However, he said ideally all troopers would eventually go through the program.

“We're seeing this activity really statewide – it's not just a Billings problem, it's not just a Bozeman or Butte problem,” he said. “We really are seeing these foreign nationals, catching them all over the state, so I don't think this is something that we're going to focus in just one spot.”