The number of local law enforcement agencies in Tennessee that have entered partnerships with the federal government to enforce immigration law has risen to 54.

In recent weeks, sheriff’s departments in Hancock, Lincoln, Madison, Marion, Van Buren and Unicoi counties have signed onto so-called 287(g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, according to a federal database.

These largely rural counties join a growing list of Tennessee police, sheriffs and constable districts entering into such agreements. Two state agencies – the Department of Correction and Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which operates the Highway Patrol – have also partnered with ICE to crack down on immigration violations in Tennessee, where immigrants without legal status are estimated to represent 2.2% of the population.

Tennessee is among the states seeing the most rapid proliferation of the immigration agreements since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.