Local jails playing major role as ICE arrests in Ohio soar under Trump, new data shows

He said this is exactly what Trump — who won Ohio by 11 percentage points in the November election — campaigned on, promising during an October 2024 campaign stop in Colorado: “We will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States. We will close the border. We will stop the invasion of illegals into our country. We will defend our territory; we will not be conquered.”

In the first six months of 2024, under Biden, 60% of ICE apprehensions in Ohio involved someone with a criminal conviction, compared to less than 40% in the first six months of 2025, under Trump. This year saw a large increase in the percentage of apprehensions involving someone with pending criminal charges, and a small increase involving people with immigration violations alone.

Since ICE has the authority to detain immigrants subject to removal or removal proceedings, agents of the federal department have the legal right to request they be held, even without charges, according to the agency.

The ICE data supports statements from the administration that the agency is leaning heavily on local jails in its enforcement. While there have been high-profile enforcement actions in Ohio — including an Aug. 16 police operation at a nightclub in Fairfield that resulted in nearly 40 undocumented immigrants being arrested — the data suggests a large number of apprehensions took place at local jails.

Southwest Ohio jails are among the top in the state for ICE detainers this year. After Franklin County Jail (265 detainers), come Hamilton County Jail (142), Butler County Jail (135) and Montgomery County Jail (123). Warren County Jail ranks sixth with 55 detainers this year, and Clark County Jail ninth (33).

White House Border Czar Tom Homan said in a recent New York Time interview that ICE officers prefer to apprehend people in jails because it takes fewer resources and avoids confrontation.

“More agents in the jail means less agents on the street,” he said

“If I had a choice, I’d much rather be in a jail because it’s safer for the neighborhood, safer for the officer, and safer for the public,” Homan said. “But let me be clear. Even if they let us in the jail, every jail across the country, doesn’t mean we stop all work site enforcement operations. We prioritize those too.”

The 100 ICE detainers issued at the Montgomery County Jail in the first six months of this year is more than twice the 48 in the first half of 2024.

“At this time, we don’t want to make any assumptions as to why there has been an increase in ICE detainers in Montgomery County,” said Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck.

Streck said the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office does not take inmates on ICE detainers alone.

“If a person is brought in on local charges and an ICE detainer is placed, we hold them only until the local charges are satisfied,” he said. “At that point, we notify ICE, and they have 48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) to either pick the person up or send a release of detainer.”

“If an inmate in our jail admits to being, or is suspected of being, in the country illegally, we contact ICE,” Streck said. “ICE then interviews the inmate by phone, reviews the charges they were booked on, and decides whether to take further action.

“None of this is new policy or a result of recent changes in the federal government — we have followed the same process for years.”

In addition to holding inmates on ICE detainers, Butler County Jail is also an ICE detention facility, meaning immigrants taken into ICE custody — possibly from the Montgomery or Clark county jails — are held in Butler County under a federal contract.

Sheriff Jones said he agrees with those who say the nation’s immigration system needs reformed. But until the immigration system is updated or fixed, Jones will do what he says he always does: enforce the law.

Butler County has hundreds of ICE-held detainees, which tallied nearly 390 on Thursday, some of whom have been in the jail for a few days and many for months, like the former Cincinnati Children’s imam, Ayman Soilman, who has been in the United States more than a decade, granted asylum in 2018 and arrested during a regular check-in with ICE in July.

The ICE contract is an expansion of the county’s contract with the U.S. Marshals Office. There were 174 people on a hold for the U.S. Marshal’s Office, 16 of whom are also on a hold for ICE, according to Butler County’s Sept. 11 daily online jail roster.

The U.S. Supreme Court gave Trump another legal immigration win Monday allowing federal agents in Southern California to target people for deportation based on race, language, job or location.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Hispanic member, said the Trump administration “has all but declared that all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low-wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.”

The ICE data shows Ohio — the 7th most populous state — ranks 22nd in ICE apprehensions this year. Southern states lead the way with Texas, Florida and California in the tens of thousands.

Estimates on immigrants in the country illegally vary depending on the source. The Pew Research Center estimates 14 million unauthorized immigrants in the country, while the Center for Migration Studies reports that number is closer to 11.7 million the Center for Immigration Studies reports 15.8 million.