“This is the very definition of stacking the deck against your opponent, and this is why the U.S. immigration courts must be removed from the Executive Branch,” said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. “Stephen Miller cannot completely eliminate the Board of Immigration Appeals without action by Congress. Instead, his plan is to keep the Board in place to rule against immigrants who win in the lower courts, while denying people who lose their cases the opportunity for a second look. Courts should be independent from political direction. Our immigration courts need to be completely separated from the Executive Branch. That’s fundamental to fairness and due process. Finally making the immigration courts into an independent judiciary is long overdue. Congress must act, today. Anyone who argues against that simply wants to keep an unfair system in place.”

OIA’s Executive Director, Lynn Tramonte, spoke at the Cleveland City Club’s “Happy Dog Takes on ICE” forum, held at this beloved Cleveland hot dog restaurant and bar on February 4. The crowd was standing-room only. She was joined by immigration lawyer Pat Espinosa and Chris Schmitt, Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, who moderated the discussion.

As Ohio communities face the uncertainty of the future of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, and the threat of an immigration abduction operation, members of the Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN) stand in solidarity with Haitian families who call Ohio home, and demand federal immigration agents get out of their communities. 

Ohio House Members are introducing a package of bills to ensure accountability of law enforcement, ICE, and Border Patrol in Ohio.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Groner

Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, said: “Unmask ICE and the Border Patrol. It is unacceptable to have masked ‘law enforcement’ officers roaming our streets, carrying guns, to enforce civil immigration laws. They have brought chaos and death to local communities. Body cameras are a small concession, but this doesn’t mean a thing unless the government agrees to quickly release unedited footage. Given this administration’s track record on transparency, we don’t have any reason to believe they will. They also need to remove the masks, and require agents to wear standard uniforms and show ID. Professionalism and integrity in law enforcement requires this. Right now, ICE and the Border Patrol are using criminal tactics to harass and arrest our community members. They are also emboldening and empowering criminals, who are copying their actions to harm people.”

As ICE and the Border Patrol threaten to surge in Ohio, people around the state and country are wondering what they can do.

• Here is a list of the key organizations working on the ground in Springfield and Lima, another area of Ohio that welcomed Haitians, and is now worried about their ability to remain in their new home.

• Sign this petition calling for an extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, started by a Springfield couple.

• Register to attend the Emergency Meeting: Unite for Springfield - ICE Out of Our Communities (online) on Tuesday, February 3, at 8:30pm ET. Ohio Immigrant Alliance is one the speakers.

• Program the Ohio Immigrant Hotline (email and phone) into your phone, and share it with your friends and community. Reach out if you have a question, need a speaker, want to report abuses, need support for a loved one in detention, and more.

• Order your “Ohio Is Home” and “Migration Is Human” merch from our online store. Designs by Shema Asifiwe, a high school student in Cincinnati.

• Join the Ohio Immigrant Alliance e-mail list for updates and action alerts and donate to OIA. Help keep our hotline, commissary support, jail abuse monitoring/advocacy, and immigrant accompaniment programs going.

On January 29, OIA’s Demba Ndiath spoke at a press conference at the Columbus Liberation Center about our endorsement of the January 30 National Shutdown. Here are his prepared remarks.

“In immigrant-rich Greater Cincinnati, as 2025 began, local jails held around 100 people for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. By the end of the year – as federal agents ramped up efforts and local jails signed on to help – thousands had been arrested and detained.” So begins Cincinnati Enquirer’s “'Living in hell.' How 2025 became the year of ICE in Greater Cincinnati.”

The article is a lengthy retrospective on immigration storylines in Ohio in 2025, chronicling how the Trump administration’s rhetoric on immigration did not match reality.

Unless something changes, the civil immigration jail system is “on track to rival the entire federal criminal prison system by the end of President Trump’s second term in office,” according to a new American Immigration Council report. 

Said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, “Instead of allowing this system to grow and kill more people, Congress should cut the ICE budget to force the Trump administration to focus its work. And state and local police should stop participating in the destruction of our families and communities. End these county-ICE jail contracts. We don’t need to participate in a system that harms people. Instead, we need Congress to update the immigration laws and make them work for today’s realities.”  

The federal government claims 280 people were arrested, and cites a laundry list of criminal offenses to justify their capture. The Ohio Immigrant Alliance identified at least 214 people — likely more — who had been arrested during the Operation, through a variety of sources. Our analysis also documented the fact that the public cannot trust the government’s claims about immigrants’ criminal history. As we wrote in our analysis, “the administration has a documented record of lying about immigrants’ criminal histories and gang affiliations. It also refuses to answer questions from the media or provide transparent evidence of its claims.” ABC 6 also found major disparities in their accusations. 

Renee Good, a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, was murdered in cold blood by a federal agent today. It’s unclear whether her family had even been notified before DHS Secretary Kristi Noem attacked her in a press conference. Video from every angle shows Good was attempting to leave a chaotic and dangerous scene. She did not drive her car toward anyone. Ohio native Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, claimed the ICE agent who murdered Good fired “defensive shots.”  

Today, OIA is releasing an analysis of ICE detention during the Columbus raids so far. The analysis, conducted by researcher John Drury, is based on publicly-available information. And, it is likely an undercount of the arrests and detentions under the so-called “Operation Buckeye,” given data limitations explained in the report’s methodology section. Only the government, possibly, knows the full extent of this campaign. Given how chaotically it has been carried out, even that may not be true. 

Ohio Immigrant Alliance believes at least 214 people were arrested as part of this ICE operation and remain in detention — likely many more. Eighty percent appear to be Latino, plus three people who are Indigenous from Guatemala. The next largest group — Africans — comprises less than 10%. Fully 93% of those arrested are men. 

In Central Ohio, the federal government has unleashed untrained individuals from outside the community, who think they are unaccountable. But greater Columbus has responded in one voice. From the grassroots, which quickly organized itself in sophisticated ways, to civic leaders and faith-based institutions, Columbus is sending a unified message: Immigrants are welcome, ICE is not. Read on for quotes from leaders; more examples of ICE brutality; and resources keeping the community safe.

ICE is not welcome in Columbus; immigrants are. That is the message Columbus residents have been sending since a couple hundred ICE agents descended on the city and began to hunt people on the streets. Residents immediately began mobilizing neighborhood watches and alert systems, keeping agents awake all night at their hotels, and setting up food delivery chains.

ICE is not welcome in Columbus; immigrants are. That is the message Columbus residents have been sending since a couple hundred ICE agents descended on the city and began to hunt people on the streets. Residents immediately began mobilizing neighborhood watches and alert systems, keeping agents awake all night at their hotels, and setting up food delivery chains.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents terrorized Columbus today, trolling parking lots and arresting people in various parts of the city. Officials with the City of Columbus, including the Mayor, City Attorney, Police Chief, City Council President Shannon G. Hardin, and Councilmember Lourdes Barroso de Padilla held a press conference to reiterate their support for immigrants who have chosen to make Columbus their home.  

Ahead of International Human Rights Day on December 10, human rights defenders with the Mauritanian Network for Human Rights in US, Progressive Forces of Change (Columbus Chapter), and Mauritanian Orphans’ Alliance documented the Mauritanian government’s ongoing persecution of Black Mauritanians in a webinar for members of the media and lawyers.

Black Mauritanians have been arrested, tortured, and even killed for demanding full and equal treatment on land their families have called home for centuries. On December 9, at 1pm ET, ahead of International Human Rights Day, civil rights leaders and genocide survivors will provide an update on the state of Black Mauritanians’ civil rights. The briefing will be useful for members of the media, and lawyers working on asylum cases.   

I wish you could have been with us at the Ohio Immigrant Alliance Family Reunion. It was a chance for us to come together after a difficult year, and there were some true heroes in that room.

• People who fled apartheid in Mauritania and Guatemala, surviving kidnappers, animals, and dangerous terrain to exercise their legal right to request asylum.

• People who exposed abuses from inside immigration jail, despite the risks.

• A father who returned legally to the United States after being deported. A mother whose husband is in immigration jail, today. 

The Butler County Commissioners’ meeting on November 18 was packed with residents opposed to the “dirty money contract” Sheriff Jones has with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). So many people attended, some had to sit on the floor. Over a dozen people spoke against the concept of detaining immigrants for civil immigration purposes, saying things like: “Your ICE facility has created a disgusting stench in our town, and we want it gone,“ and “You are empowering a bounty hunter.” 

Another resident said, “When the sheriff is focused on immigrant capture, his attention is away from other crimes.” That’s true. But also, the ICE contract is a way for Sheriff Jones and his deputies to commit their own crimes against a captive audience of people, who simply want to work and take care of their families.