Some of America’s safest cities are in jurisdictions that cooperate with ICE, a trend also shaped by wealth and zoning — with a handful of notable exceptions.
Most of the 10 safest cities on U.S. News & World Report’s list are located either in states or counties that have laws directing municipal authorities to cooperate or coordinate directly with federal immigration enforcement. That cooperation often occurs through 287(g) agreements, which allow local law enforcement agencies to work directly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The cities also share other traits, such as high median incomes and a lack of mixed-use zoning or transient rental housing, underscoring the ongoing debate over whether immigration enforcement cooperation plays a meaningful role in public safety.
Johns Creek, Georgia — named the safest city in America by U.S. News & World Report — is governed under state laws requiring cooperation with federal immigration authorities, placing it among several highly ranked cities in similar jurisdictions while leaving open the role of income, development patterns and local demographics in shaping the results.
While situated in Fulton County and not far from its relatively dangerous county seat of Atlanta, Johns Creek falls under a stringent state law mandating local-federal cooperation, enacted in the wake of Laken Riley’s murder.
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The sweeping Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act of 2024 requires local police to forge agreements with federal authorities to assist in immigration enforcement. Any jurisdiction that neglects to seek cooperation with DHS may lose state funding, according to the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force.
“If you are in our country illegally and committing crimes, you have no place in Georgia,” Gov. Brian Kemp said after signing the law.
The second-safest city on the list, by contrast, limits cooperation with the feds at the local level, but until late January saw its state police fully engaged in cooperation with federal authorities.
Centreville, Virginia, an exurb of Washington, falls within Fairfax County — where the prosecutor’s office has made news for noncompliance with ICE detainers — but where its recently departed Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) repeatedly cited his 287(g) agreement with the feds, which current Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) reversed upon her inauguration.
Centreville, near John Foster Dulles International Airport and just off regional artery I-66, also has a low 6% poverty rate and lacks the mixed-use development and transient rental properties that experts have said often beget crime.
The other two outliers on the list, Sammamish, Washington, and Newton, Massachusetts, at eighth and third respectively, have a similar residential, low-mixed-use makeup and relatively high median income. Newton’s “welcoming city” ordinance and Washington state’s Keep Washington Working Act preclude most cooperation with ICE.
The rest of the list of safest places to live in the U.S. falls squarely under state or local laws with some of the most pro-cooperation dynamics in the country.
Denton County, Texas, where No. 10 Flower Mound is situated, was the first North Texas county to shift its 287(g) agreement from the more passive “jail model” — where honoring of ICE detainers is standard — to the “task force model,” where select officers can detain people based on suspicion of federal immigration law violations, according to Dallas’ ABC affiliate.
“It’s what we do — we enforce the law and it’s the law of the land,” Denton Sheriff Tracy Murphree told the outlet.
Flower Mound also falls under Texas SB 8, which provides grants to fast-track officer training to move agencies from “jail” to “task force” 287(g) models.
No. 5 Homosassa Springs and No. 9 Weston both fall in Florida, home to one of the more stringent state pro-cooperation policies.
The TRUMP Act of 2025 — Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy — also designated the state Agriculture Commissioner as chief immigration officer.
With Homosassa in red Citrus County on the Gulf Coast and Weston in blue Broward County on the Atlantic Coast, the state law effectively places both on a level field in terms of immigration enforcement requirements, despite historical differences.
Carmel and Fishers, Indiana, located near each other in suburban Hamilton County, fall at Nos. 7 and 6 on the U.S. News list. Both also fall under Indiana’s Senate Enrolled Act 181, which authorizes the state attorney general to sue any local authorities that refuse to enforce immigration laws.
Hamilton County has also been viewed as one of the more cooperative counties in the state regarding federal immigration enforcement partnerships, according to reports.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has also entered into a 287(g) task-force model for Indiana State Police on interstates crisscrossing Indianapolis-area suburbs.
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The fourth-safest place to live, Rochester Hills, Michigan, is patrolled by Oakland County.
Sheriff Michael Bouchard, in office since 1999, has a record of cooperating with ICE, according to reports and a 2010 DHS statement announcing a new “biometric information-sharing capability” that commenced across county municipalities to help identify illegal immigrants.
When Oakland County showed up on a Trump administration noncooperation list, Bouchard and County Executive David Coulter were quick to point out the error:
“We are not a sanctuary jurisdiction,” they said in a statement.
Thirty-nine states, plus Guam, have at least one agency that has forged a 287(g) agreement with ICE, according to DHS data.
Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut have state laws restraining such cooperation, while the agency is “pursuing opportunities” in Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine and Hawaii.