Advocate: Ohio’s county jails are no place for migrants
Five county lockups and a private jail in Ohio have signed contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house migrants the agency detains as part of President Donald Trump’s effort at mass deportations. An advocate for immigrants said it’s a bad idea to house them in facilities built for people accused of committing crimes.
Trump ran on false claims that migrants commit high rates of crime and on promises that he would deport millions.
But mass deportations are a lot harder than Trump made it sound. And his administration is reclassifying people who came legally and asking help from local law enforcement as it tries to live up to his promises.
One way it’s done that is by signing contracts with sheriffs to house detainees in county jails.
So far in Ohio, ICE has contracted with Seneca, Mahoning, Butler, and Geauga counties, said Lynn Tramonte of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. It has also contracted with Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio, a multi-county jail, and Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, a private prison in Youngstown, she said.
Trump might act as if it’s a crime to be in the United States without documents, but it’s not, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
“The act of being present in the United States in violation of the immigration laws is not, standing alone, a crime,” it said in an issue brief. “While federal immigration law does criminalize some actions that may be related to undocumented presence in the United States, undocumented presence alone is not a violation of federal criminal law. Thus, many believe that the term ‘illegal alien,’ which may suggest a criminal violation, is inaccurate or misleading.”
What is a crime is illegal entry — coming into the country without declaring it to authorities.
“Entering the United States without being inspected and admitted, i.e., illegal entry, is a misdemeanor or can be a felony, depending on the circumstances,” the ACLU said. “But many undocumented immigrants do not enter the United States illegally. They enter legally but overstay, work without authorization, drop out of school or violate the conditions of their visas in some other way. Current estimates are that approximately 45% of undocumented immigrants did not enter illegally.”
Trump is trying to deport many of those people, in addition to trying to revoke protections of those who came legally under temporary protected status, or by using the CBP 1 app.
Tramonte said county slammers are not the place to hold migrants.
“We are literally putting people who are not charged with crimes in a criminal jail,” she said in an email.
She listed what she believes are some of the harms: “Taking them away from their families, jobs, and communities, making them rot in jail, while their immigration cases are pending. Making it harder for them to work with lawyers and win their cases. In the United States, you can be eligible for deportation and legal status at the same time. It’s up to the courts to figure out which way to go.”
Several Ohio counties contracted with ICE to house migrants during the first Trump administration. There were some problems.
Detainees complained of mistreatment by jail staff. And at one point, the jail in Morrow County had a 100% COVID infection rate.
Tramonte warned that taxpayers were on the hook to defend the lawsuits that were filed during the first Trump administration and likely would be again.
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