How to End ICE Jail in Ohio
NEW OIA Report and May Week of Action
Fundraiser to free Nkemasosa from ICE jail
Ohio Immigrant Alliance just released, “Ending Immigration Jail in Ohio: How and Why,” a report that breaks down the concept of immigration jail into simple terms; provides examples of successful community organizing to end ICE jail contracts in Ohio; and offers recommendations for a more logical and humane policy. From May 23-30, organizers are planning a week of action to end ICE jail, with interfaith vigils in Seneca, Mahoning, and Geauga Counties, and more in the works.
OIA is also raising funds to pay an immigration bond for Nkemasosa, a Columbus father from Cameroon who has the chance to leave ICE jail if we come through for him.
OIA’s report draws upon years of community organizing, advocacy, and legal actions. It describes how detained immigrants organized inside the Morrow and Butler County Jails during the first Trump term, ending two ICE contracts. It tracks the growing grassroots movement to cancel the Butler County Jail’s ICE contract, again. “Ending Immigration Jail in Ohio” also explains how ICE’s current arrest and detention policies endanger the public, with real examples from “Operation Buckeye” and the Gratis Police Department.
With Executive Summaries in English, Spanish, and French, “Ending Immigration Jail in Ohio: How and Why,” shows how public exposure and brave resistance can affect policy and government operations. Centering the power of directly-impacted people, public testimonies, community organizing, legal action, and faith‑based advocacy has changed policy, minds, and futures for everyone who chooses to make Ohio their home.
It will again.
“This report illustrates the remarkable grassroots efforts happening all across Ohio,” said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance and author of the report. “Immigration jail serves no purpose other than to harm people and coerce them into giving up on their cases. Leaders in Ohio have stepped up to say ‘not in my backyard.’ There are better ways to carry out immigration policy, ways that don’t endanger the public. Ways that keep families together, and recognize that migration is a basic part of being human. Congress has failed us when it comes to passing immigration reform, but local governments can demonstrate a better way forward, instead of choosing to participate in mass deportation.”
Ohio leaders have called for a week of action to end immigration jail around the state, from May 23-30. Prayer vigils and other events are being organized outside ICE detention centers and other locations. Said Runa Guzman, Founder of 4winds419 and the organizer of an event in Seneca County, “We are watching our communities be targeted, detained, and treated as disposable, and we refuse to stay silent. No one is illegal on stolen land. Immigration detention is a system of incarceration that separates families, strips people of due process, and holds human beings in conditions that inflict lasting harm. People are removed from their communities, isolated from legal support and loved ones, and placed in facilities where accountability is limited and suffering is routine.”
She continued, “History has made clear what happens when governments build systems that isolate and confine groups of people, while labeling it necessary for order or security. We do not ignore those lessons. We name what is happening for what it is: a system that relies on dehumanization to function, and one that expands when it is not challenged.”
About the week of action, Guzman declared, “We are demanding the abolition of ICE and a complete end to immigration detention. We are demanding full transparency in how these systems are funded and an end to 287(g) agreements that entangle local agencies in federal enforcement. Across Ohio, people are organizing, showing up, and refusing silence. We will not accept a system that cages human beings. We will continue building pressure until these systems are dismantled and our communities are free from fear.”
Read the report, “Ending Immigration Jail in Ohio: How and Why.” Donate to free Nkemasosa. Join the week of action.
For more Ohio Immigrant Alliance research and publications, see:
Connecting Ohio: The Ohio Immigrant Hotline’s First Year in Action
“Operation Buckeye” is a Black Eye for ICE: Profiling Latinos, Creating Chaos, and Violating Rights
Behind Closed Doors: Black Migrants and the Hidden Injustices of U.S. Immigration Courts
Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home
