Updated March 27: Revised to include ICE statement.

Federal immigration officers detained 26 people suspected of being unauthorized immigrants when they reported for community service Sunday morning in Fort Worth.

Sheriff Bill Waybourn told KXAS-TV (NBC5) that his office participated in the operation at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"This was totally initiated by ICE," Waybourn told NBC5. "They came to us and said, 'Listen, we reviewed the list [of names], and we suspect some of them are illegal aliens.' So we said, 'Whatever you need to do.' "

The operation took place at the Tarrant County facility on Cold Springs Road in Fort Worth. An NBC5 photographer reported seeing an ICE bus and two vans. Most of the people were frisked as they were escorted onto the bus, and one man was shackled, the news station reported.

The detainees had convictions for felonies and misdemeanors and had been ordered by a court to do community service, said David McClelland, the sheriff's chief of staff. It appears that they were not screened by ICE when they were first booked in jail after their arrests, he said.

Two ICE agents work at the Tarrant County Jail from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, screening records to look for unauthorized immigrants, but the agency might miss them if immigrants are booked when no ICE agents are on duty, McClelland said.

ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said in a statement Monday that 23 of the immigrants are from Mexico and three are from Honduras. Twenty-three have been convicted of DWI, and four have been convicted of possessing controlled substances, Rusnok said.

"Three of those arrested have been previously deported, and will have their previous final orders of removal reinstated; six will be voluntarily returned to Mexico; 12 have been issued notices to appear before a federal immigration judge who will determine their immigration cases," the statement said.

The people taken into custody Sunday were driven to a federal detention center in Dallas, McClelland said.

Waybourn told NBC5 that the families of the detainees have been notified and that some could be released.

The sheriff took office in January. He said he wants to participate in a federal program known as 287(g), which would give his detention officers the power to look for unauthorized immigrants entering the jail.

"This is going to give us coverage 24 hours, seven days a week, so the ability for somebody to slip through the cracks is going to be reduced," Waybourn told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I will not foolishly say somebody won't slip through the cracks at some point in a large, urban jail like this, but this will reduce that."