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Ten-year-old Rosa holds her brother Armando, both U.S. citizens, in their West Chester apartment. Rosa's father, Armando, was recently arrested for a traffic violation. He is being held in the Butler County jail facing deportation. Gabriela Cabrera, the children's mother, is in the foreground.Click to enlarge

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Ohio is more than 1,000 miles from where illegal immigrants cross daily into this country on its southern border, but to get a temperature of the national debate over the deeply polarizing issue of immigration, look no further than Butler County.

There, tough-talking Sheriff Richard K. Jones has become a national crusader, railing against illegal immigrants, the employers who hire them, and the politicians who, he believes, avoid the issue.

"Start punishing and locking up the business owners who hire these people," Jones said last week. "I'm not talking about fining 'em $1,000.... I'm talking about taking assets in millions.... You'd only have to do a few.... They'd get the message."

His office is the only police agency in the Midwest authorized to participate in a program giving local officers limited authority to enforce federal immigration law.

Jones represents one side of the immigration coin. On the other side are the faces of people like Armando Mondragon, 29, who sits in jail while his wife, Gabriela Cabrera, waits fearfully in their West Chester apartment along with the couple's five children. Mondragon faces possible deportation after being pulled over on a traffic stop in June — his rear license plate was missing and he had no driver's license.

Mondragon had been working as a landscaper, said his wife through a translator. "I've talked to him. He's very sad," she said. "He's worried about the children."

The next president will inherit an immigration system in tatters, with no consensus on how to fix it. Many view illegal immigrants as economic poison, stealing desperately needed jobs and straining social services. They want aggressive enforcement and employer crackdowns.

Others see the issue though a more clouded lens. They see people who risked their lives to get here for jobs that Americans shunned. Most, they say, came for the same reason that immigrants have traditionally come here: economic opportunity and the chance to give their children a better life.

That's Mondragon and Cabrera, who left Mexico in 1996. The five children, all born in the United States, are legal U.S. citizens even though their parents are not. The youngest, twins Armando and Gabriela, are eight months old.

"We came here because it was very difficult for us in our country," Cabrera said. "I hope that God helps us to release my husband and have him here with us and not separate us."