The Wells Police Department became the first in Maine to enter an agreement to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement, federal records show.

The department will provide assistance to ICE agents via the agency’s 287(g) program, which includes three subtypes of agreements. Thirty-eight states have at least one participating department; a half-dozen states, including California, Illinois and New Jersey, explicitly ban such agreements.

Wells Police will assist ICE through a “task force model,” in which local law enforcement officers are extended “limited immigration authority with ICE oversight” during routine duties, according to ICE. The department signed the agreement April 2, according to an ICE database.

The 387(g) program also includes a “jail enforcement model,” which allows local departments to identify and process immigrants slated for removal after arresting them, as well as a “warrant service officer model,” in which ICE agents can train and authorize local officers to serve and execute administrative warrants to immigrants held in their jail.

Though Wells is the first department in Maine to formalize such a relationship, the Monmouth-Winthrop Police Department is pursuing its another “task force model” agreement with ICE, according to the federal agency’s database. That department was not listed in the database April 1, indicating that they recently applied.

Wells Police Chief Jo-Ann Putnam did not immediately return a voicemail requesting details on the department’s anticipated role and the impetus for signing the agreement. Monmouth-Winthrop Police Chief Paul Ferland could not be reached by phone and did not immediately return an emailed interview request.

To apply for the 287(g) program, law enforcement agencies must nominate specific officers to participate and be trained by ICE. They must be U.S. citizens who can pass a background investigation and have knowledge and experience enforcing laws in their jurisdiction. “Task force” nominees require at least two years of experience as a sworn officer.

While some 287(g) agreements deal with local jails, they are distinct from Cumberland County Jail’s agreement to house federal inmates, including ICE detainees. That agreement recently allowed a teenager to be held in Maine after being arrested in Massachusetts.

This story will be updated as more information is available.