Outlining problems with CCNO jail as ICE detention center

The Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio is set to become an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. Below are a few things the jail board should have been told before voting.

ICE’s rhetoric labels every immigrant a criminal, but sheriffs already have the authority to arrest people who commit crimes; they do this every day. And while the vast majority of the people who commit crimes are U.S. citizens, of course law enforcement arrests people born in other countries. What the jail board voted to do instead is to start incarcerating people who are not accused of crimes. 

ICE detention is technically “civil” confinement, but it takes place in a criminal jail. You read that right. ICE is one of the few agencies that has the authority to put people in criminal jails while they are navigating a civil legal process. They have the authority but they don’t need to use it. It’s a choice made through political considerations rather than what’s good for our communities.

Incarcerating someone is a serious decision. It’s separation from their family, job and home. If it seems inhumane to put people navigating a civil process in a criminal jail, that’s because it is. 

During the first Trump administration, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance worked with Ohio families dealing with a loved one’s detention and deportation. Maryam Sy interviewed 255 individuals and we wrote a book about their experiences with Suma Setty at the Center for Law and Social Policy.

We talked to fathers whose children became depressed, and even suicidal, after their parents were detained. We talked to mothers trying to hold down jobs and care for young children while they worried about the future of their families. We talked to families in foreclosure. We saw loving relationships fracture due to the stress of detention and deportation. We talked to men who were deported in straight jackets, unable to make themselves board a plane to a country that had tortured them.

These Ohioans had been in the U.S. for 10 and 20 years or more. Some fled genocide. Some had been able to buy homes, open businesses and even employ Americans. These are the people CCNO is agreeing to detain and help deport. As Lucas County Sheriff Mike Navarre said, when announcing his opposition to the ICE contract, “Nobody has a viable solution to what will happen to these children. Until they figure it out, I will not support mass deportations.”

Another thing to know is that people can simultaneously be eligible for deportation and eligible for a green card. For example, many of the people we work with are married to U.S. citizens. They applied for green cards and are waiting for the process to conclude — that can take decades because of how our laws were designed. The government has a choice about whether to allow them to continue to pursue that status, or put them in line for deportation. During the first Trump administration, and now in the second, the government chose the path of breaking up families. 

Finally, the CCNO board should have been told that immigration detention is indefinite. There’s no time-limited “sentence” like in a criminal case. Executive director Dennis Sullivan told board members that the average length of stay would be 40-45 days. But that is based on Biden-era figures, which included people who were deported quickly at the border.

That’s not how the Trump administration operates. They are arresting people who can’t immediately be deported, like people who have appeals pending. According to the American Immigration Council, people with cases in immigration court are often held for six months or longer.

During the first Trump administration, we worked with individuals who were detained for 12 months or more — some up to four years — in Ohio county jails. These jails are not set up for long-term incarceration. But, they are required to provide medical care. The Butler and Morrow County jails tried to scrimp on medical costs and were sued. Judge Sarah D. Morrison, a Trump-appointee, blasted the Morrow Jail for creating an “unconstitutionally acceptable environment,” in a case brought by the ACLU of Ohio. 

Earlier this year, the ACLU of Ohio and other organizations sent a letter to counties outlining their legal obligations under ICE contracts. It doesn’t appear that anyone, other than Sheriff Navarre and Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken, read it. A 2020 lawsuit against Butler County Jail, which is based on civil rights violations by corrections officers, remains pending. 

The CCNO board will soon find itself at the center of family separations. It’s not too late to choose a different path, one that focuses on local needs, instead of engaging in a federal political battle that will harm our community members.

Everyone in Ohio — whether we were born here or somewhere else — wants the same thing. To live in a safe place and take care of our families. Said an Ohio father who was deported after months in an Ohio county jail, “I’m a human, like everybody else. Nobody [is] better than nobody, man.”