Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer told the Journal-News they can house “probably up to a couple hundred” people who are awaiting deportation.
“We’re moving very quickly with this, we’ve already met with ICE officials and are trying to get everything in place as soon as we can,” Dwyer said and later added. “We’re preparing to fulfill our role in the current administration’s process of deporting a lot of the illegals.”
During his budget hearing with the commissioners just days before the Nov. 5 election, Jones announced he might be getting back into the “deportation business” if President Donald Trump won.
“I used to house ICE prisoners until the new president came in and I fired ‘em because they were going to fire me,” Jones said. “Hopefully that will change here in a few days and I’ll be back in the deportation business like I was before.”
Jones said he canceled his contract with ICE for housing detainees awaiting immigration hearings in 2021 due to the Biden administration’s regulations.
Dwyer said the sheriff basically saw the writing on the wall and decided to get out of the contract before they were hit with untenable restrictions.
“From what I heard from other facilities they were basically messing with the facilities and creating some pretty good hurdles to overcome just to house inmates,” Dwyer said. “That’s why the sheriff stepped away. Now we have a different administration that’s not setting those rules in place, they’re actually removing obstructions and making it easier. Housing a detainee should be no different than housing a local prisoner.”
The county had a contract with ICE from 2003 until June 2021 when the sheriff cancelled it. The jail here was one of five Ohio facilities used by ICE for detentions, the others were in Bedford Heights, Chardon, Mt. Gilead and Tiffin. The jails in Chardon and Tiffin are the only locations left in the state, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website.
The sheriff houses inmates from county jurisdictions as well as those in cooperation with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons. Dwyer previously said they once housed 160 ICE detainees “on a fairly regular basis.” The total inmate count on Monday was 645 and maximum capacity is 1,000-plus.
The county will be paid $68 daily to house the detainees plus $36 per hour to transport them to court hearings and in the past they also took them to the airport.
Commissioner Don Dixon told the Journal-News previously he has no problem with Jones contracting with ICE again. He noted the county pays for holding local scofflaws, so it is good to get outside paying entities to use the facilities.
“Anything we can do to pick up revenue in the jail that fits his standards and his operations, I’m all for that,” Dixon said. “Obviously the more prisoners we have the more revenue it produces, unless it requires a lot more work to keep those prisoners in the rest of your population. It’s the sheriff’s call.”
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