Monday, March 23, 2026 • Much cooler but pleasant (and cloudy). Upper 60s. ☁️

Editor’s Note: If you’re on Yahoo! or GMAIL, please make sure Oklahoma Memo is hitting your inbox (and not your spam folder!) so that you don’t miss your daily local news recap.

By Ben Fenwick, Oklahoma Watch
Click here to support their newsroom

A small Oklahoma public school district with its own police force became the first school in the nation to have an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the agency’s records.

But just as quickly, the agreement disappeared from ICE’s website, and school officials deny entering into it.

Known as a 287(g) agreement, records show the Caney Valley Public Schools Police Department in Washington County was listed as of March 16, but the notice was taken down days later. 

District Superintendent Steven Cantrell said his school’s police chief was misled by ICE during a recent training event, during which he asked for more information but was instead sent a 287(g) agreement and asked to sign it. Cantrell said only he could sign the document, and only after it is approved by the school board.

“He requested official information but did not sign anything,” Cantrell said. “I think there was a lot of misrepresentation.”

Ward 1 School Board member Clayton Ullrich said he was not informed that Caney Valley schools entered into an agreement with ICE. He said the board did not vote on entering any such agreement.

👉 Click here for the full story.

Remember when the news was about what happened, not how to feel about it? 1440's Daily Digest is bringing that back. Every morning, they sift through 100+ sources to deliver a concise, unbiased briefing — no pundits, no paywalls, no politics. Just the facts, all in five minutes. For free.

Read the newsletter trusted by 4.5 million fact-seekers.

Editor’s note: Links requiring subscriptions have an *.

A hand-curated list of the best journalism from across the state:

• 🚨 Oklahoma Gov. Stitt expected to appoint Alan Armstrong to Senate (News On 6)

• Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and His Likely Senate Appointee to Meet With Trump on Sunday (NOTUS)

• Airport security lines are long. Here's what to know if you're flying (KOSU)

• Trump threatens to deploy ICE agents to airports Monday if funding deal isn’t reached (KOCO)

• Remembering Chuck Norris in his Texoma hometown (KXII)

• Lawton Police Department confirms multiple victims in overnight shooting at bar (KSWO)

• Oklahoma energy prices rise amid global conflict, grid strain (News 9)

• OBN seizes 5,136 plants, 1,525 pounds of processed marijuana in Locust Grove (Fox 23)

• Embattled Oklahoma County Commissioner Myles Davidson resigns (NonDoc)

• Oklahoma County judge was victim of social media threats, feds say (The Oklahoman)*

• Oklahoma City acts to remove racial restrictions in land records (KFOR)

• Construction begins on Walker Avenue corridor, further connecting Paseo, Uptown (The Oklahoman)*

• Edmond Transfer Station up for 2-year renewal despite past push to review city’s trash contract (NonDoc)

• Super Secret Donuts creates “Travis Meyer donut” to support military families (News On 6)

• Inside Tulsa’s growing Hmong community 50 years after its arrival (Tulsa Flyer)

• Tulsa's Sterlin Harjo to receive Peabody Trailblazer Award this summer (KOSU)

By Ashlynd Baecht, The Frontier
Click here to support their newsroom

When he was an officer for the Clinton Police Department, Emanuel Ruiz allegedly lied in court, testifying that a man charged with assaulting a police officer had hit him in 2021. Ruiz is also accused of keeping a shotgun and a bulletproof vest when he resigned from the department in April 2023. 

He later got a job as a police officer 15 miles east of Clinton in Weatherford, where a pending lawsuit accuses him of beating a man suspected of driving under the influence during a traffic stop in 2024.

Because police employment records are confidential in Oklahoma, the public cannot track an officer’s career across departments. The Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, the state’s police licensing agency, told The Frontier in response to an open records request that police employment histories are confidential under state law. CLEET couldn’t disclose if the Clinton or Weatherford Police Departments had notified the agency of any allegations of misconduct involving Ruiz. 

Clinton Police Chief Luis DeLaTorre said the agency reports what is required by law to CLEET, but he wasn’t aware of any allegations of misconduct by Ruiz while he worked there. 

Ruiz remains a licensed police officer in Oklahoma. The allegations of misconduct only surfaced when he applied to work at the Oklahoma Highway Patrol in 2025, and he allegedly admitted during the interview process to keeping police equipment from Clinton and perjuring himself in a court case, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Ruiz is now facing embezzlement, perjury, and filing false or forged instrument charges in Custer County District Court.

👉 Click here for the full story.

A daily briefing connecting Oklahomans to the state’s best journalism — and original content from Oklahoma Memo. Got a news tip? Somebody I need to interview? Message me at [email protected].