From Vigils to Victory
Ohio’s Growing Movement to End ICE Jail
In May 2026, hundreds of Ohioans showed up for the Week of Action to End ICE Jail in Ohio, participating in interfaith vigils outside all six immigration jails in the state. Faith leaders, community members, and advocates stood together in Tiffin, Youngstown, Chardon, Hamilton, and Stryker to deliver a unified message: end immigration jail in Ohio, now and forever.
The week of action drew widespread media attention, with coverage from Ohio Newsroom, Columbus Free Press, Cleveland.com, WKRC, La Prensa, WFMJ, and Spectrum News, among others. Rachel Maddow even mentioned the Butler County vigil in the context of broader national ICE jail protests nationwide.
Our demands were simple: End ICE jail. Transparency in detention facility funding. End 287(g) agreements.
Many of the people involved in the vigils are faith leaders who also provide pastoral care to immigrants detained in these jails on civil immigration charges. Several vigils included specific demands about clergy access to immigrants detained in these facilities in their platforms.
One moment from the week captures the spirit of this movement perfectly. According to Clifton United Methodist Church and the Cincinnati Sanctuary Coalition, while the vigil took place outside the Butler County Jail, incarcerated immigrants worshiped together inside. Muslim, Hindu, and Christian men held hands and prayed, strengthened by the bond we shared despite bars and walls.
View the photo gallery below for images from all of the vigils, and watch the recap video on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
A Long History of Resistance
The week of action is part of a long history of advocacy against local jails being used to house immigrants for ICE in Ohio. Immigration law is the only area of civil law where we allow massive numbers of people to be put in a criminal jail just to ensure they participate in a civil legal process. It’s an extreme policy that is totally unnecessary, expensive, and inhumane.
Ohioans have been organizing to end immigration jail for years. During the first Trump administration, detained immigrants and their lawyers, loved ones, and advocates worked together and ended two ICE contracts with jails in Morrow and Butler counties. They spared thousands of Ohioans from being detained and deported.
Unfortunately, Butler County got its contract back, but Morrow did not. Ohioans are working to end the contract at Butler again — for good.
For the behind-the-scenes look into the organizing that ended these contracts and the work happening today, read the Ohio Immigrant Alliance report, “Ending Immigration Jail in Ohio: How and Why.”
The Pressure Continues: Butler County and CCNO
As an example of how the work continues, we spotlight two regional groups that are continuing to put pressure on their county commissioners and other decision-makers. They are calling for an end to the ICE contracts at the Butler County Jail and the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio.
“Putting someone in jail — depriving them of their freedom, ability to take care of themselves and their loved ones, and access to regular medical care — should be a last resort,” said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. “Instead, the Trump administration is putting people in jail that it accuses of civil law violations — paperwork issues. In many cases, the people they are arresting have legal work permits and pending immigration applications. These are folks doing their best to work through a convoluted and lengthy immigration process. How does incarcerating them make sense? It doesn’t. It’s about interrupting the path they are following in order to remove as many immigrants as possible from our country. The Trump administration’s policy does not have our support and it is hurting many Ohio families. That’s why we’re saying these contracts need to end.”
Many counties justify these ICE contracts as an additional source of income. To that, Tramonte responds, “These are still our tax dollars being spent to put people in jail who shouldn’t be there. The fact that a county wants to make a few bucks off of the American people, and off of incarcerating people who are doing everything they can to follow the law is, quite frankly, disgusting.”
Butler County Jail: A Full Year of Weekly Advocacy
Residents formed a group called Butler County for Immigrant Justice (BCIJ) and have been attending County Commissioner meetings for exactly one year, demanding an end to the ICE contract. On July 21, 2026 — their one-year anniversary — BCIJ packed the Butler County commissioners’ chambers beyond capacity, then marched to the Butler County Jail.
The group, which now has more than 250 members, held a vigil at the Government Services Building, attended the commissioners’ meeting, demonstrated at High Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and marched to the jail with a cart of fresh apples for detainees. The sheriff’s office declined the fruit, citing a no outside food policy.
“We want the contract with ICE to end here in Butler County,” said Anne Jantzen, facilitator of BCIJ. “The Butler County commissioners do have control over that contract and we will persist until that happens, but our secondary goal is to make sure the people of Butler County know what’s going on here in our jail. Most people don’t realize that the immigrants they’re detaining are not criminals.”
Samantha Searls, program director of Ignite Peace, added: “Right now people are not given a chance and they’re being detained over the smallest, most frivolous things, and some are even being racially profiled while they’re being pulled over just as a reason to put them in the jail and make money off of them.”
BCIJ member Kathy McMahon-Klosterman explained why Butler County residents keep showing up to demand an end to the ICE jail contract: “If you become silent, you become complicit in the injustice. And so we cannot, knowing what’s going on, we cannot stop.”
Read more about their one-year milestone in WCPO and the Journal-News.
Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio: Demanding Accountability
The day after BCIJ attended their commissioners’ meeting the Social & Immigration Justice League of Ohio attended a CCNO Board meeting on July 22, to speak against the ICE contract. They also held a protest outside the jail. A coalition of organizations — including faith leaders, impacted community members, and the Bowling Green Raging Grannies — called on the CCNO Board to end its ICE detention contract.
Their demands were clear: end the ICE detention contract, establish an independent ombudsperson for ICE detainees, ensure meaningful due process protections, and hold a public vote on whether the ICE contract should continue.
At the board meeting, CCNO Board member Pete Gerken — also a Lucas County Commissioner — made a motion to discuss canceling the ICE contract, but the motion failed when no other board member seconded it. Gerken noted that CCNO Executive Director Dennis Sullivan had described ICE detainees as some of the facility’s best-behaved detainees, which undercut previous assertions that the jail would primarily hold people with serious criminal backgrounds.
“These are not the ‘worst of the worst,’” Gerken said. “They’re here because they’re without papers, not because they’re here with a criminal background.”
CCNO receives $117 per detainee per day from ICE — approximately 70 ICE detainees per month — and earned $2.1 million in the first year of the contract. Gerken vowed to continue: “One of these days it’ll get a vote. I don’t expect it to win that vote, but I expect us to be on the record.”
Sonya Mavis, a coalition spokesperson, said: “We are asking our elected officials to lead with transparency. If this contract reflects the values of our communities, then they should be willing to defend it publicly. If it doesn’t, then it’s time to end it.”
Read more about the CCNO protest in WTOL and watch the video coverage.
Take Action
This movement is growing, and there’s a place for you in it. Here’s how you can get involved:
Join a local group. Find the organization closest to your region at ohioishome.org/find-local-groups.
Support detained immigrants. Donate to the Detained Immigrants Commissary Fund at bit.ly/OIACommissary.
Stay informed. Join the OIA email list at bit.ly/OhioImmigrantEmail.
Resources
Watch a short video about the May 2026 week of action on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Learn about the movement to end ICE jail in Ohio, which cancelled two contracts following the first Trump administration and is working to do it again.
Gather data about immigration detention in your region of Ohio.
Watch a video about “life” inside the Butler County Jail.
Learn about the Detained Immigrants Commissary Fund and make a donation.
Tell your friends, family, and social networks about the Ohio Immigrant Hotline and program it into your phone.
Read about the experiences of Ohioans who were detained and deported in Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home.
Thank you to the organizers who made the May Week of Action possible:
Seneca County Jail (Tiffin): 4winds419
Mahoning County Jail (Youngstown): Youngstown Area Interfaith Prayer Group
Geauga County Jail (Chardon): Like-Minded in Lake County
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center (Youngstown): Youngstown Area Interfaith Prayer Group; Interfaith Group Against Hate; We Are Many, We Are One Coalition
Butler County Jail (Hamilton): Butler County for Immigrant Justice; Task Force on United Methodist Immigration Ministries of Ohio; Interfaith Center at Miami University; Ignite Peace; Amos Project’s Black Women’s Health Initiative; Coalition for Concerned Citizens; Miami Valley Immigration Coalition; Sisters of Charity Immigration and Ending Human Trafficking Justice Circle; The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)-Ohio Chapter
Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio (Stryker): Abriendo Puertas Para Soluciones; American Muslims for Palestine; Toledo Immigrant Alliance; Social and Immigration Justice League of Ohio
