A group of concerned citizens attended Tuesday’s Butler County Commission meeting, asking questions about the Butler County jail and Sheriff Richard Jones’ enforcement of immigration.
Soon after President Donald Trump was sworn in for a second non-consecutive term, Butler County re-instated its enforcement and detention contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Jones had canceled the contracts soon after Joe Biden was elected president in 2020.
Jones told the Journal-News he isn’t actively seeking people who are in the country illegally, but said deputies come across them and detain them, such as with a traffic stop. If a passenger is here illegally, Jones said that person may also be detained, calling them “collateral,” a term used by border czar Tom Holman.
“I heard rumors that ICE is going into the schools and pick up kids, that’s not at all true. None of that’s true,” Jones told the Journal-News.
According to ICE, the agency said it “relies on statutory law enforcement authority to identify and arrest aliens who may present threats to national security or public safety, or who otherwise undermine the integrity of U.S. immigration laws.”
“We come to you today with some serious concerns, concerns we believe should be your concerns, also,” said former school administrator Anne Jantzen of Seven Mile. “Specifically, we have questions about the confinement, treatment and the due process of ICE detainees in the Butler County Jail.”
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
She asked the commissioners to investigate alleged claims of retaliations of people detained due to an illegal immigration status; identities of those detained for ICE; if ICE detainees are receiving legal representation and due process; and halt any more immigrants being admitted to the jail and allowing any more deputies to be credentialed as ICE agents.
As of Thursday, nearly 360 people in the Butler County Jail are being detained for ICE, according to the sheriff’s office. The jail has had as many as 450 detained in previous weeks.
Prisoners are held at one of three jails in Butler County, though the primary facility on Hanover Street holds up to 860 people. Resolutions on South Second Street the Court Street Jail in downtown Hamilton are used as housing overflow. On July 15, more than 1,100 people were at one of the three facilities, with 853 at the Hanover Street facility.
Ann Browe of Hamilton said having this ICE contract is “empowering harassment, racial profiling, and a lack of trust in our officers and first responders.”
“Please get out of the deportation business,” she said, adding that many of those detained for being in the country illegally “are doing all kinds of necessary jobs” and “are driving the local economy.”
The Journal-News recently spoke with Sheriff Jones about his immigration stance and his contract with ICE, and toured the Butler County Jail facility on Hanover Street.
Jones said this is not the first time he had deputies credentialed as ICE agents.
“We’ve had this 287(g) before,“ he said, referring to the Immigration and Nationality Act Section 287(g) the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to deputize local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws. ”We had it under (former President Barack) Obama, and it was called the task force. We had it all that time and never used it.”
Now, deputies are not required to be on the task force.
“Training is not a bad thing,” Jones said of the 10 deputies now credentialed as ICE agents. “We’re going to look at this and study it and make sure this is what we want to do. At this point, we’re just taking the training and we’ve not done much of anything yet. Doesn’t mean we won’t, but right now we’re just sitting on it.”
Commissioner Don Dixon, who reiterated Rogers’ promise to discuss their concerns with the sheriff, as well as the Butler County prosecutor, thanked the people that spoke, saying they “have shown this morning what democracy is all about.”
“We will take these comments to the prosecutor and the sheriff,” he said. “We hear you, I hear you and you’re welcome to come back and we will address this as much as we can, and I’ll share your concerns.”
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