By Ben Orner / Broadcast version by Mary Kuhlman
Reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration

Since President Donald Trump took office early last year, his administration has ramped up enforcement of America’s immigration laws.

One part of that increase is a rise in detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that enforces immigration laws and deports unauthorized immigrants.

Detainers ask local, state and federal jails and prisons to hold suspected unauthorized immigrants for an additional 48 hours so ICE can pick them up and begin the deportation process.

In Trump’s first six months in office, ICE sent 38 percent more detainers to law enforcement agencies nationwide and 37 percent more detainers in Ohio, compared to President Barack Obama’s last six months. That’s according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.

The Trump administration needs the help of local law enforcement for its crackdown on immigration, but complying with detainer requests is not required by law. Communities that do not comply are referred to as “sanctuaries.”

In Ohio, though, sanctuaries are hard to come by, as law enforcement regularly complies with ICE’s requests to pick up immigrants for deportation.

Data for Ohio

Through a hard-fought series of Freedom of Information Act requests and court victories, TRAC has compiled a database of every ICE detainer received by local law enforcement agencies across the nation for about the last 15 years.

TRAC’s records for Ohio are current through July 2017 and date back to November 2002. Since then, ICE requested the transfer of more than 27,000 undocumented immigrants from city jails, county jails and state and federal prisons in nearly every county in the state.

County jails received the majority of those detainers, accounting for 71 percent of the total.

The top county for detainers, Franklin, is Ohio’s most populous with more than 1.2 million residents. When adjusting for each county's population, Franklin is still first for detainers, but that is where the correlation ends.

The Clark County Jail, located in Ohio's 21st most populous county, received the second-most detainers. Fayette County, Ohio’s 74th-most populous county with just 29,000 residents, received the third-most detainers.

Some heavily-populated counties like Cuyahoga (2nd), Summit (4th), and Lucas (6th) received just the 59th, 55th and 58th most detainers, respectively.

ICE withheld most information about the detainers and the immigrants named in them. The agency released limited information that included the person’s gender and citizenship.

More than 63 percent of the immigrants on the detainers were originally from Mexico. Next came Guatemala at 9 percent, while 4 percent were from Honduras. Nearly 97 percent were male and only three percent were female.

One important piece of information that ICE included, though, was whether some detainers were refused. ICE provided outcomes for only about a third of the detainers sent to Ohio law enforcement agencies, but in more than 98 percent of those cases, ICE said the agencies did not refuse the detainer.

Bob Cornwell, the executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association, said it is common practice for county jails in Ohio to hand over unauthorized immigrants to ICE.

“Policies have remained fairly consistent over the years,” he said.

Portage County Sheriff David Doak agrees with Cornwell, and said his deputies and correctional officers are instructed to comply with ICE. His jail received 56 detainers and did not refuse at least 30, according to TRAC.

Trump’s Increased Crackdown

One byproduct of illegal immigration Doak sees firsthand is drug trafficking, particularly coming across the Mexican border with the United States.

“Trump took issue with that politically,” he said. “He made a stand with that, and once he committed to it, he was kind of obligated to follow through. And we’re beginning to see the extent of that.”

“It’s caused jail overcrowding, deaths, the list could go on,” he said. “(Drugs have) been coming across the border for years, and law enforcement has taken a pretty tough stand.”

Immigrants'-rights groups point out that the majority of people who are undocumented are not drug dealers, and that they are detained for a variety of reasons.

Doak also expects ICE to pay more attention in rural areas where law enforcement has not had much interaction with unauthorized immigrants, like Portage County.

“I can almost assure you if we picked someone up now and called ICE,” Doak said, “they would probably come and get them without delay.”

The sheriff’s office actually has no official policies regarding ICE or unauthorized immigrants, because of its irregular interactions with them.

“It’s not something in the past that was earth-shaking,” he said.

With Trump’s increased crackdown, though, the sheriff’s office is looking into implementing policies specifically related to ICE and unauthorized immigrants. Some policies Doak’s office is drafting would decide whether to hand over unauthorized immigrants who are witnesses of crimes and whether the Portage County Jail should begin to track the citizenship status of its inmates.

Personal Versus Professional

Though Doak, a Democrat, is committed to upholding the law by complying with ICE detainers, he is sympathetic when he talks about the families of the immigrants handed over to ICE for deportation.

“I just morally think that it’s wrong to split families up, take children or parents and deport them and split the family up,” he said. “On the other hand, those folks know that when they cross the border illegally, there’s consequences to that, and they have to take a little bit of ownership in that.”

As the Trump administration increases its crackdown on illegal immigration and law enforcement agencies in Ohio try to keep up, one thing is clear: If an unauthorized immigrant is taken into custody by a law enforcement agency or is sitting in a cell at a jail or prison, their days in the U.S. are likely numbered.

“If they were here illegally,” Doak said, “we would probably be contacting ICE.”

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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CORRECTION: This web-version of the story initially listed Rep. Dusty Johnson as "Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-N.D." It has since been corrected to reflect that he represents South Dakota. (10:35 a.m. CT, April 23, 2025)

A bus tour will zip through eastern South Dakota Thursday, where local leaders, health care providers and farm voices want to connect the dots between stable federal aid and their ability to plan, after recent actions have put them in a tough spot.

Thursday's events are part of the rural community tours organized by United Today, Stronger Tomorrow, a coalition that contends heavy budget cuts and grant freezes carried out by the Trump administration are the opposite of creating efficiencies.

Thursday's tour will stop in Madison, which is part of a new, largely federally funded tristate pipeline to improve water quality and economic development.

Roy Lindsay, mayor of Madison, said his city of about 7,000 cannot build a stronger future without the help of federal programs.

"It seems like whoever's pushing the buttons are looking at numbers more than (the) reality of what those departments actually mean," Lindsay observed.

Local officials echoed demands from voters who have shown up at town halls asking their members of Congress to push back against cuts. In an emailed statement, Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said he understands the concerns but cited the federal debt as a need to, in his words, "right-size our government."

Farming communities said they are stuck in a holding pattern due to downsizing within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including conservation grants.

Travis Entenman, executive director of the Northern Prairies Land Trust, which works with private landowners on projects, said in a "red" state, it is already hard to convince people to try out federal programs and he fears the funding dilemma will hinder progress.

"The uncertainty of it all, and the back and forth, and no one really knows what's going on, makes it extra frustrating," Entenman explained.

Entenman acknowledged not every farmer who applies for the grants gets one but added those who do have come to expect reliability in receiving funds as they work to make their farmland healthier and economically viable.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to "unfreeze" affected conservation grants, but Entenman and other South Dakota groups said they have yet to see evidence of money flowing again.

Dozens of mine safety field offices in Kentucky and across the country would close under a proposal by the federal Department of Government Efficiency.

According to an analysis by the nonprofit Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, offices in Barbourville and Harlan are on a list of seven in Kentucky slated for closure.

Brendan Muckian-Bates, policy and advocacy associate at the law center, said closing the offices could turn a 30-minute drive to inspect a rural coal mine into a 3- to 4-hour round trip.

"With the proposed consolidations in Kentucky, some of these offices that would be left would essentially make it near impossible for an MSHA field inspector to conduct the mandatory 4-times-a-year underground mine safety inspections," Muckian-Bates contended.

News outlets first reported last month the Department of Government Efficiency had listed the leases of dozens of Mine Safety and Health Administration field offices across the country for cancellation. Trump administration officials and adviser Elon Musk said lease terminations are part of cost-cutting efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.

Thousands of coal-mining jobs have been lost in recent decades but inspectors remain busy. More than 16,000 inspections were conducted last year, accounting for more than 234,000 hours on site at mines.

Muckian-Bates added proposed cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health would make inspections more challenging.


"Every day that these layoffs remain in effect, that NIOSH offices are closed, more miners will become sick and potentially die," Muckian-Bates argued.

Congress created the federal mine safety agency as part of the Mine Safety Act of 1977, after the deaths of 26 miners in two underground explosions at the Scotia Mine in Letcher County the year prior.

This story is based on original reporting by Liam Niemeyer for the Kentucky Lantern.


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A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress is joining advocates for energy assistance across the country to warn a dangerous situation is brewing for low-income households.

Federal staffing cuts have stalled the distribution of key funding. The Trump administration's layoffs of 10,000 Health and Human Services workers include the entire office overseeing the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, which gives eligible households a break on their monthly bills to avoid utility shutoffs.

Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which works with states on the issue, said the layoffs have blocked the latest round of aid from getting to them.

"Many states have told us that they've either run out of money or they're very close to it," Wolfe reported. "They need these additional funds to help families pay off the remaining winter heating bills or get ready for summer cooling programs, or both."

Minnesota is among the states to report an imminent "zero balance" if action is not taken soon. It has been more than two weeks since the layoffs were announced and Wolfe noted there is no word on funding status. Congress had authorized $378 million to round out the current cycle.

Thirteen U.S. senators have signed a letter asking the administration to get LIHEAP staff back in place and the money moving again.

Wolfe stressed keeping energy bills current is about more than staying cool when the temperature spikes. He noted utility shutoffs can produce dire consequences for some households.

"The loss of access to refrigeration, for example, you can't keep your food safe, or some medications need to be refrigerated," Wolfe outlined.

There was added pressure this past winter on some state programs where there were much colder temperatures. Each year, LIHEAP helps more than 6 million low-income households and seniors on fixed incomes across the country cover their energy bills.


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