In the Midwest, it's a multi-front battleground over immigration

In January, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed an executive order outlining the ways he expects agencies and governments to follow federal orders on immigration enforcement. Braun said the order was aimed at jurisdictions "that may not be abiding by the spirit of" immigration enforcement.

All the initiatives have met with fierce opposition — and strong support, as players on both sides put the nation's divide over undocumented immigrants n microcosm.

The Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill in February that would tie local government funding to whether entities cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement. The bill has received support in a letter from Republican members of Indiana’s congressional delegation.

"States can and should play a key role in restoring integrity to our immigration system and protecting Americans from the social and economic costs of unrestrained migration," the letter states. "There is no reason why Indiana should not be a leader in that effort."

There's been pushback, too.

"With what is happening in Indiana with the executive orders and the bills, it’s creating a lot of panic and fear in our communities," said Carolina Castoreno, co-founder of the Alliance for Latino Migrant Advocacy and community engagement chair for the Indiana Latino Democratic caucus.

The bills and other actions directing law enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE would backfire, Castoreno said.

"That is going to lead to an increase in distrust between the immigrant community and the police," she said. "When things like that happen, we tend to see immigrants who are victims of crimes, are less likely to report them. The police do not want people living in fear that they can’t report when they are a victim of a crime.

"This actually makes our public safety more vulnerable and causes more issues in our community."

A similar bill in Wisconsin's legislature would require county sheriffs to detain undocumented immigrants who commit crimes or risk losing state aid. Gov. Tony Evers has already pledged he will not sign the measure, but it passed the Wisconsin Assembly in mid-March and moved on to the state Senate.

Under the legislation, county sheriffs would be required to comply with federal immigration detainers and warrants and to ask those in custody to prove they are U.S. citizens. Sheriffs also would be required to report the names of those who cannot do so to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

As in Indiana, battle lines have been drawn.

The Badger State Sheriffs’ Association, which represents all 72 elected Wisconsin county sheriffs, and the Wisconsin Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs Association, a professional organization of 1,000 law enforcement leaders, signed a joint letter in favor of the bill.

Both organizations support the broader goal of notifying ICE when unauthorized immigrants charged with felonies are in their jails, they wrote. But they also expressed concern that mandated reporting requirements could strain staffing and budgets in local law enforcement agencies.

Opponents cite the risk of discouraging immigrants from reporting crime, racial profiling, and a perceived lack of due process.

Iuscely Flores, a domestic violence survivor and a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, testified during a hearing on the bill that she hesitated to report her ex-partner's abuse to law enforcement because she was unsure if she would be seen as the “criminal."

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Voces de la Frontera, called the bill an “attempt to push a discriminatory agenda under the guise of public safety” that could undermine due process, which could force sheriffs to hold people even if they have not been convicted of a crime.

In Missouri, they're talking about licensed bounty hunters

Elsewhere in the Midwest, those who want to reduce the numbers of undocumented immigrants and supporters of immigrant communities thrust and parry, the former emboldened by Trump's election victory and the latter dismayed by it.

When Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe took office in January, he signed executive orders directing state law enforcement agencies to collect immigration status from criminal offenders and mandating training of certain members of the Missouri Highway Patrol to enforce federal immigration laws with an eye toward tackling "criminal threats associated with illegal immigration and narcotics trafficking."

A bill before the Missouri State Senate would create $1,000 rewards for anyone "who makes a report in which an illegal alien is arrested." With a Republican supermajority in Missouri, there is reason to think Senate Bill 72 can pass. But its progress has been slow, and its prospects uncertain, midway through the annual legislative session.

Immigrant advocate Ashley Chavarria told CNN the bill has engendered fear in the state's immigrant communities. Chavarria, the U.S.-born daughter of Mexicans who came across the border illegally in the 1980s, said she had seen Latinos,?some undocumented, in Missouri’s capital Jefferson City area avoiding English classes and reluctant to collect their children from school since Trump's inauguration.

But Sen. David Gregory, the measure's sponsor, says "the liberal media" has not been honest about what the bill would actually do.

"In sort, this bill seeks to create an ICE program at the state level," Gregory said in a committee hearing in February.

"Much like ICE, we will have the Department of Public Safety conduct investigations. Much like ICE, there will be a tip line that the Department of Public Safety can use to initiate investigations. Much like ICE, we have to actually do an effective investigation and have enough probable cause to initiate a warrant for someone's arrest before they can be tracked and arrested — just like ICE with the detainer warrants. Just like ICE, once a warrant is issued for an illegal immigrant's arrest, then and only then can a police officer or a licensed bounty hunter effectuate that arrest."

And in Michigan, an old prison is pressed into service

In Baldwin, Michigan, ICE and Florida-based private prison operator GEO Group signed an agreement in March for the latter to open an 1,800-bed federal immigration detention center at the former North Lake Correctional Facility.

An attorney for the ACLU’s National Prison Project in Washington, D.C. told local media that an immigration detention facility would only increase the risk that "people in the local community could be more vulnerable to immigration enforcement and detention as a result."

But the administrator of Lake County, where the facility would be located, pointed out that the prison was the county's largest taxpayer, and when open, its biggest employer.

There is sentiment to crack down on undocumented immigrants in the Michigan Legislature, too.

The state House voted 56-50 in February for a Republican-led resolution that would end all earmarks, known as pork barrel spending, for any jurisdictions that it alleges do not comply with ICE, including detainer requests for jailed immigrant inmates. The resolution would require government bodies to submit to the House their policies on "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests" and other policies.

But many Michigan law enforcement agencies have said it is not their job to carry out immigration law and that they are too preoccupied with their own work at any rate.

In progressive Kalamazoo County — a sanctuary county, according to CIS — Kalamazoo Township in January considered, but ultimately tabled, an ordinance prohibiting the use of township resources for immigration enforcement or cooperation with federal immigration agents.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said in January the city will continue to work with ICE, but the police department has stressed it does not enforce immigration law.

"If you are in this country illegally, we should not be shielding you from ICE and federal enforcement, and the city of Detroit does not," Duggan said. "We're not a sanctuary city."