How ICE Operates in Greater Cincinnati
Federal and local agents collude to make an immigration arrest in Cincinnati. (FBI - Cincinnati)
In the first half of 2025, there has been a dramatic increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the Greater Cincinnati Area. ICE agents operating out of a field office in Blue Ash have begun conducting immigration raids, arresting, detaining and deporting local residents—many of whom have no criminal charges—without due process. These raids are often conducted by plain clothes officers assisted by local police. ICE does not need a warrant to make an arrest, nor are they required to identify themselves by badge or read detainees their rights. Detainees are separated from their families to face imprisonment or deportation without ever seeing a courtroom.
Cooperation between Federal ICE agents and local police is made possible through Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act: a voluntary agreement authorizing ICE to deputize state and local police to enforce federal immigration laws under the agency’s direction and oversight.
Butler County (OH), Kenton, Boone and Campbell Counties (NKY) have entered into such agreements with ICE, giving local police authority to carry out arrests on their behalf. Additionally, all four county jails have profitable federal contracts for jailing ICE prisoners. Butler County, as of July 5th, has more than 400 ICE detainees inside its jail, including Cincinnati residents. Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said on June 4th, “We’ve probably had close to 800-900 ICE prisoners in less than 22 weeks in our jail and out total.” Jones made these comments more than a month ago, so it can only be assumed the number of prisoners has since increased.
One such prisoner, Emerson Colindres Baquedano (19) serves as an unfortunate but nevertheless indicative example of the kind of people who are vulnerable to being kidnapped, imprisoned, and shipped away by this ”special” police force. Emerson is a recent graduate of Dater High School and a promising soccer player with no criminal background who had lived in Cincinnati with his family for more than a decade. In June, he was arrested during a routine check-in with ICE at their Field Office in Blue Ash. He was held in Butler County Jail and eventually deported to Honduras, a country he hasn't been to since he was eight years old. Right after Emerson was deported, his family was given an order to leave the US within 30 days.
While Emerson’s story is particularly reprehensible, there are hundreds of people with similar stories in our locale alone. Residents and workers—who are often trying to build a better life for themselves and their families—are rounded up and deported, or in some cases endlessly transferred between ICE detention facilities where they endure torturous treatment.
Other arrests have taken place in East Price Hill, namely at the Kroger on Warsaw Avenue. East Price Hill has been a major target for ICE raids in Cincinnati this year. Local officials have done nothing practical in the way of protecting residents from ICE thus far. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval apparently told the truth when he said the city would “follow the law” as it pertains to ICE raids.
Meanwhile, local congressman Greg Landsman (D) recently joined Republicans and 74 Democrats in signing House Resolution 488 which "expresses gratitude to law enforcement officers, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, for protecting the homeland."
As ICE operations intensify locally, it is extremely important that we:
Never cooperate with ICE
ICE agents rely on public compliance, fear, and confusion. You are not legally obligated to answer their questions, open your door for them, or show any documents without a warrant signed by a judge.
Defend and protect our neighbors
If you see ICE activity: document it, spread the word, and intervene if possible. Support immigrant-led organizations and community defense efforts.
End 287(g) agreements and jail-ICE contracts
Local governments can choose not to collaborate. We must organize to make this collaboration so politically inadvisable that officials have no choice but to follow the people's will.
There is no such thing as a "good" deportation. ICE does not keep us safe. Its entire purpose is to isolate, punish, and disappear working-class people, and it does so with the full cooperation of the federal, state, and local courts, police, and governments.
We owe our neighbors better. Abolish ICE. No more deportations. Not in our city, and not in our names.