Jones said Butler County is the first in Ohio to have deputies with the federal credentials, but added a department in northern Ohio is pursuing credentials. Four of his corrections officers inside the county jail also went through ICE training in order to bring charges with prisoners who may be undocumented.
“ICE can’t do this by themselves,” the sheriff said. “They depend on sheriff’s offices.”
While it may be the first in Ohio, Butler County isn’t the only local law enforcement agency that have deputized local officers as ICE agents, according to ProPublica. This is allowed under an expansion of that’s called 287(g).
Jones has had a long history of wanting to deport undocumented immigrants and closing the border, including multiple trips to the southern states, speaking on local and national media, such as Fox News, and putting up a sign pointing to his jail that reads “Illegal Aliens Here.”
There are an estimated 11 million to 13 million immigrants who are here illegally in the United States, and according to the Center for Migration Studies, around 104,000 are estimated to be in Ohio.
Butler County Democratic Party Executive Director Kathy Wyenandt said, “This move by Sheriff Jones is part of a dangerous pattern,” calling it a stunt and “a political power grab disguised as public safety.”
She said credentialling 10 of his deputies as new ICE agents “tears families apart, creates fear, and forces people to live in the shadows.”
“They’re afraid to go to work, pick up their kids, or even go to the grocery store. That is not who we are,” she said.
Wyenandt said ICE partnerships lead to “serious civil rights concerns,” such as with due process and oversight, and it doesn’t provide solutions.
“This move discourages people from reporting crimes, seeking medical care, or participating in civic life,” she said. “Public safety should be about protecting everyone, not creating fear. This is the wrong direction for Butler County.”
Jones — who said he does have compassion for “people who want to come in here legally — argued his decisions makes the community safer, citing that his agency has arrested several immigrants here illegally who have committed crimes.
“If you want to come here and be here illegally, I encourage them to come to these sanctuary cities,” he said. “Go to Cincinnati, go to Dayton. But if you’re in Butler County, we’re looking for you.”
Less than a week into March, the county sheriff signed a new contract with ICE to hold undocumented immigrants arrested by ICE began. That first day there were a handful in the Butler County Jail, and on Thursday, there were around 430.
Even more arrests will be made, Jones said, now between ICE investigations and county sheriff’s deputies able to work as ICE agents.
“They went from like zero to 100 miles an hour,” Jones said of ICE’s enforcement in Butler County, “and everything has changed. They’re moving very rapidly, and you can see there’s more arrests just in Butler County.”
Jones said his department will be even more aggressive in Butler County “pretty fast,” including raids on businesses.
Jones said he met last week with Tom Homan, the Trump Administration’s executive associate director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, also known as Trump’s border czar, and was told there would be more workplace enforcement. Jones agreed with that push, and in 2018 called for more raids on Butler County businesses.
“It’s just starting. It’s just a drop in the water so far,” he said. “If you’re hiring people, they’re coming in. If you’re fudging the books, you’re going to get charged.”
About the Author
