Ohio Could Face Challenges Detaining Undocumented Immigrants

 

As Donald Trump took office Monday, his team said he would issue a flurry of executive orders to stop asylum seekers from coming to the United States and to expel huge numbers of noncitizens who are already here.

 

But as Ohio sheriffs eye federal contracts to hold detainees, an immigrant advocate has a warning: The cost and difficulties of taking them in on behalf of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement could be greater than sheriffs and county commissioners might think.

 

“They have to factor in litigation because immigrants who are in ICE jail have rights,” said Lynn Tramonte, founder of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. “They have the right to medical treatment, they have the right to decent food and access to legal resources and all these things. Are you getting enough money from the federal government to cover your costs — including the cost of potential litigation if you violate people’s rights?”

 

As evidence, Tramonte pointed to the last time Trump was president. Jails in Butler, Morrow and Geauga counties all took in ICE detainees after 2017, and all had problems they probably didn’t anticipate.

 

As relatively small facilities, Morrow and Geauga counties struggled to cope with COVID-19 as it swept through their jails. Before mid-2020, 100% of the inmates in the Morrow County Jail at some point had been infected with the potentially deadly virus.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/ohio-could-face-challenges-detaining-undocumented-immigrants-ocj1/

Local Advocate Groups Rally to Defend Immigrants in Ohio

 

Ohio lawmakers and immigrant advocates say federal policy and state bills have cast a pall over immigrant communities around the state. Raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have left many fearful of going to work, sending their kids to school or shopping for groceries. Those with legal status like humanitarian parole or temporary protected status worry their protections could be revoked with little warning.

 

Since taking office less than a month ago, President Donald Trump has signed several executive orders reestablishing immigration policies from his first term and expanding on them. Among those actions, he has directed the Department of Homeland Security to “terminate all categorical parole programs” that conflict with Trump’s executive orders, including a program designed for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

 

Two weeks ago, Trump administration officials rescinded an extension of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants in the U.S.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/local-advocate-groups-rally-to-defend-immigrants-in-ohio-ocj1/

Well... better late than never.