Kragt spoke in particular about one of his parishioners, Armando Reyes Rodriguez, 42, who was “scooped up” by ICE in April and is now living in the jail. He told the commissioners Reyes is living here with permission from the federal government and his wife and son are currently in the process of getting asylum from Honduras.
“You cannot change Armando’s case but you can choose not to cooperate with deportation efforts that have become a priority only through false narratives and fear mongering,” he said. “If there were no contract for jail contracts ICE would have to focus on those who are a threat to our community. If we empower deputies with ICE enforcement there are going to be people who do not trust our first responders or officers, won’t call 911 or at worst we’re empowering harassment and racial profiling.”
Kragt told the Journal-News Reyes Rodriguez was told to report to an ICE office to have his ankle monitor removed. He said he had the ankle bracelet on not because he has a criminal record, it was just so they could monitor him. Kragt took him to the appointment and that’s when they nabbed him, “they baited him into showing up.”
Kragt said the arrest “hasn’t made anyone safer” and they don’t know why he couldn’t stay with his family. He said he doesn’t know all the legal details of Reyes Rodriguez’ situation, but believes he can’t pursue asylum with his wife because he was deported once before.
“He was in the country at an earlier chapter in his life before this relationship with his wife and family. I’m guessing that at that time it was more about an economic opportunity kind of attempt to move. At that time he was denied entry or deported somewhere in that mix and because of that prior deportation the ruling was he was ineligible to be part of the asylum case this time,” he said. “But there was a policy to keep families together and the rest of the family had a very strong legitimate asylum case, because as they were fleeing four years ago there were people looking for them and threatening their lives. So they were allowed to enter the country and he was allowed to enter with them.”
This news outlet reached out to ICE for comment but phone calls and emails were not returned.
The commissioners approved an amendment to the contract the sheriff has with the U.S. Marshals Service to add ICE prisoners effective March 5. As of Tuesday, 263 out of 940 jail inmates are ICE detainees. Jones had an ICE contract for housing detainees awaiting immigration hearings from from 2003 until June 2021 when he canceled it because he did not agree with Biden administration’s regulations.
Jones also has 14 staffers in various stages of federal ICE training to help deport illegal immigrants. They will be able to handle paperwork and make arrests on ICE charges.
“Now once again Butler County is being rather zestful in how we are treating immigrants and we’d just like you to have a watchful eye,” retired United Methodist Church Pastor Larry Kreps said. “Understand there’s a lawsuit from a previous time on our treatment of folks but you strike me as caring people, I’d like you to keep an eye on things, so things don’t get out of control and that we remedy things that have been wrongly done. We’re all people trying to live.”
There is a pending lawsuit filed in 2020 in the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati by two refugees, Bayong Brown Bayong and Admed Adem, who claim they were repeatedly beaten and threatened during their ICE detainment.
The lawsuit alleges Bayong lost a tooth during an altercation with corrections officers. Court documents show Bayong “admitted, during his sworn deposition testimony, that he did not lose a tooth at the jail” and his wife and dentist’s depositions prove a “gap always existed.”
Jones previously told this news outlet that the men — both no longer housed at the jail — were noncompliant while in the jail and appropriate use of force was used.
A woman who said she lives in Green Hills in Hamilton County told the commissioners she has heard an ICE detainee recently attempted suicide and she wants the commissioners to investigate the allegation and make that probe public.
“I find it alarming that Butler County renewed a contract with ICE even while there was pending litigation from 2020 over alleged abuses to people in detainment. Even with this ongoing lawsuit, a loud and clear call to do better, there have been accounts of detainees being mistreated currently,” she said. “I’m concerned about each detained person and implore the commission to attend to their conditions treating each person whether they’re incarcerated or not with dignity and respect.”
Jones’ Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer told this news outlet “I’m not aware of any detainee attempting suicide” and he checked with the warden personally to confirm it.
Commissioner Don Dixon told the Journal-News the commissioners “are not the judge or jury, we just protect our citizens and make space available for people who are charged with crimes and that’s pretty much the bottom line.”
As for canceling the sheriff’s ICE contract, “We don’t tell the sheriff what to do with the jail, he runs the jail. He’s the highest elected official in Butler County for law enforcement.”
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