This Week @ the Ohio Statehouse
Ohioans Against Extremism published this primer on anti-immigrant bills pending in the Ohio legislature during the final week of January 2026. Follow their Substack and bookmark their multi-issue legislative tracker.
[Cross-posted from Ohioans Against Extremism]
This Week TLDR: Senate Hearings Cancelled, House isn’t back yet, so let’s talk about some bad immigration bills.
The Ohio Senate was set to return from their winter break this week, but Mother Nature had other plans. Hearings and session are canceled this week as central Ohio and other parts of the state continue to dig their cars out from this weekend’s 12+ inches of snowfall. Hallelujah. We will take this brief reprieve as an opportunity to discuss a set of bills that are top of mind to us, particularly in light of the recent tragedies in Minnesota.
As we’re sure you’ve heard, there was another murder at the hands of federal “law enforcement” in Minneapolis this weekend, this time a beloved nurse at the local VA, Alex Pretti. Another family grieving after an act of senseless violence – paid for with our own tax dollars.
We are sending our solidarity and gratitude to the people of the twin cities, particularly the protesters literally risking their lives to protect the constitutional rights of all of us.
It’s never been more important for everyday citizens to stand up to our government when they attempt to lie to us, hurt us, and silence us. It’s never been more important for us to stand together with our neighbors, regardless of immigration status, race, or religion.
Having again witnessed this weekend’s horrific murder with our own eyes, Ohioans and the rest of the country are rightfully concerned about the growing normalization of unaccountable government violence under the guise of “immigration enforcement”. So it’s a good time to read up on the harmful immigration-related bills being considered by our Republican supermajorities at the Statehouse.
Which brings us to our main point:
Let’s not let Ohio become the testing ground for government overreach.
Ohio is being used as a testing ground. Not for public safety. Not for constitutional clarity. But for how far lawmakers can go in hard-coding fear, suspicion, and federal overreach into state law—and how much coercion it takes to force compliance.
Recent ICE operations across Ohio are not isolated enforcement actions. They are the visible edge of a coordinated legislative agenda designed to conscript local governments, hospitals, courts, and communities into federal immigration enforcement—whether they consent or not.
This is not governance of a free society. This is extremism by statute.
What We’re Seeing on the Ground
ICE activity in Ohio has escalated in both frequency and visibility. Local jails are being used as federal holding facilities. People are detained based on suspicion rather than warrants. Public institutions—places meant for care, education, and civic life—are increasingly treated as extensions of immigration enforcement.
These actions are being normalized now because the General Assembly is attempting to make them mandatory later.
The Legislative Blueprint
What follows is not a grab bag of bills. It is a system. It’s a package of bills that layer onto each other to undermine our civil liberties.
HB 26 — Protecting Ohio Communities Act
Sponsor: Josh Williams
Punishment for noncompliance: Reduction in Local Government Fund distributions
HB 26 requires every law enforcement agency in Ohio to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and to participate in all federal programs, including the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, an unreliable data collection effort that has already resulted in eligible voters being wrongly kicked off voting rolls.
Agencies must detain individuals until ICE takes custody—even though ICE can delay transfer indefinitely. The cost of enforcing federal immigration law is shifted entirely onto counties and municipalities, with no reimbursement and no limit.
Then comes the tell. HB 26 declares an “emergency,” allowing it to:
Take effect immediately
Bypass the 90-day waiting period
Avoid a public referendum
This bill is designed to outrun democracy.
HB 42 — Mandatory citizenship data collection
Sponsors: Tex Fisher & Josh Williams
HB 42 forces agencies to collect and report citizenship data. This is surveillance infrastructure disguised as bureaucracy. Data collection becomes dangerous when the purpose is punishment, not service. The Ohio Poverty Law Center analyzed the potential impact across agencies.
This bill is meant to provide a pretext for slashing the budgets of already underfunded programs. School districts with large populations of immigrant students will be targeted, and programs serving lower income Ohioans will be further defunded.
HB 200 — America First Act
Sponsors: Gary Click & Nick Santucci
Punishment for noncompliance: Reduction in Local Government Fund distributions
HB 200 mandates full state and local cooperation with ICE and expands the use of Ohio jails and prisons for immigration detention.
Immigration enforcement is a federal power. Binding every level of state and local government into compulsory enforcement is a direct collision with the Supremacy Clause.
When federalism disappears, what replaces it isn’t efficiency. It’s feudalism.
HB 281 — Hospitals as immigration enforcers
Sponsor: Josh Williams
Punishment for noncompliance: Total loss of Medicaid funding and state grants
HB 281 requires hospital and mental health facility employees—and even contractors—to actively assist ICE and provide all legally permissible information.
Healthcare workers are turned into enforcement agents. Patient trust is destroyed. Constitutional protections under the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments are put at risk.
Stripping Medicaid funding is not policy leverage. It’s coercion.
HB 282 — Immigration status in sentencing and bail
Sponsor: Josh Williams
HB 282 forces judges to consider immigration status when setting bail, sentencing, or community control sanctions.
Civil status is injected into criminal punishment. Discretion becomes discrimination. This bill is quieter than HB 200—but it advances the same logic.
SB 172 — Suspicion-based arrest authority
Sponsor: Kristina Roegner
Punishment for noncompliance: Loss of homeland security funding
SB 172 authorizes any agency to arrest people anywhere in Ohio based on suspicion of unlawful presence.
This is the resurrection of “papers, please” policing. Unfounded suspicion becomes probable cause. Movement becomes evidence.
SB 188 — Criminalizing protest posture
Sponsor: Tom Patton
Penalty: Third-degree felony
SB 188 criminalizes “taking a position in a location that prevents immediate access” for law enforcement.
“Taking a position” is undefined. Vague language is the point. It allows selective enforcement and directly undermines the First Amendment right to assemble.
When just standing there becomes a felony, protest is no longer protected speech.
Follow the Money
Many of these bills rely on the same enforcement mechanism: financial strangulation.
The Ohio Local Government Fund
Source: State tax revenues
Pays for: Fire, police, roads, public health, and basic municipal operations
Cutting these funds doesn’t punish politicians. It punishes communities. The message is clear: Comply—or lose the ability to function.
That is not voluntary cooperation. It’s coercion.
This isn’t a coincidence, it’s coordinated
The same sponsors appear again and again. The same penalties repeat. The same themes emerge: fear, punishment, forced compliance.
This is not about immigration policy; it’s about power—who wields it, and how far they can push it without resistance.
And so we resist.
What Comes Next
Extremism depends on exhaustion and silence. Complexity is a feature, not a flaw.
Here’s how to interrupt it:
Contact your state legislators and demand opposition to these bills
Share this analysis with local officials, hospital boards, and community leaders
Use advocacy toolkits (coming soon!) and calls to action from trusted organizations to organize testimony, call-in days, and local resolutions
Ohio is being asked to trade constitutional democracy for coerced obedience.
We say no.
