Trump orders could impact 100+ immigrants in local jail

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones stands next to a illegal aliens sign he had placed in the parking lot of the Butler County Sheriff’s Department, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005 in Hamilton, Ohio. Jones says federal authorities aren’t doing enough to enforce immigration laws.

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones stands next to a illegal aliens sign he had placed in the parking lot of the Butler County Sheriff’s Department, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005 in Hamilton, Ohio. Jones says federal authorities aren’t doing enough to enforce immigration laws.
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Feb 22, 2017
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New federal policies meant to step up and speed up deportation of illegal immigrants from the U.S. come as 103 people sit in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Butler County jail, an I-Team analysis of jail data found.

Butler County has a special contract with ICE in which the feds paid nearly $1.4 million for housing and $29,982 for transporting ICE detainees from across the country last year.

Three ICE inmates have been there since 2015.

RELATED: 5 people from ‘banned’ countries in area jail; Here’s why they’re there

Montgomery County officials denied a public records request for a list of inmates on ICE detainers there, saying they were unable to produce such a list.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a pair of directives Tuesday on how it will carry out President Donald Trump’s pledge to increase enforcement of America’s immigration laws. They included prioritizing enforcement for anyone here illegally who is suspected or charged of any crime, as opposed to the former policy of focusing on serious crimes or national security threats.

The order brings back a program that allows local law enforcement to help federal agents enforce immigration laws, a program Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones emphatically participated in.

RELATED: Butler County Sheriff’s Office wants to investigate immigration crimes

The new directives also begins plans for a wall at the Mexican border and calls for the hiring of 5,000 new border agents and 10,000 ICE agents.

Part of the memo that may affect those inmates at the Butler County jail would allow federal officials to deport people caught crossing the southern border back to Mexico while awaiting deportation proceedings, regardless of what country they are from.

A Somali and a Syrian are among the inmates at the Butler County jail picked up crossing the border from Mexico, a recent I-Team analysis found.

I-TEAM SPECIAL REPORT: Uncertain fate for local refugees

Local jail records don’t say whether someone is in ICE custody at the Butler County jail for immigration violations – possibly seeking asylum — or some other offense, and immigration court records are not public.

But they do list what country the people are from, and only 27 are from Mexico.

Here are the countries two or more inmates are from:

Mexico: 27

Guatemala: 11

Honduras: 6

Haiti 5

El Salvador: 4

Gambia 4

Somalia: 3

Jamaica: 3

India: 2

Nigeria: 2

Mauritania: 2

Ecuador: 2

Nicaragua: 2

Costa Rica: 2

Venezuela: 2

Other recent I-Team stories:

ExploreJustice in the Jailhouse: Lawsuits, accusations plague county jails in the region
ExplorePolice raid home of charter school superintendent
ExploreBill aims to curb outsourcing, abuse of foreign worker program
ExploreMiami U’s handling of sexual assault faces federal review
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About the Author

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Josh Sweigart is an investigative reporter at the Dayton Daily News. His stories have focused on government waste, fraud, abuse and accountability in southwest Ohio, as well as the statehouse and U.S. Capitol.