A new report by the Ohio Immigrant Alliance found that Haitian detentions in four Ohio jails went up more than 140% in the month following the end of temporary protected status for Haitians living in the state.
The report, authored by John Drury with Ohio Immigrant Alliance, used federal data from U.S. Immigrations and Customs to determine how many Haitian people were booked into four Ohio jails between Jan. 1 and July 26 of this year. The report compared those numbers to online jail rosters at the jails from July 27 to Aug. 31.
The report found that detentions of Haitian nationals rose sharply at the four jails after the end of TPS. The report said 63 Haitians were booked into the jails between July 27 and Aug. 31, compared to just 26 in the previous seven months.
Ohio Immigrant Alliance's report looked at the Butler County Jail, Mahoning County Justice Center, Seneca County Jail and Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio, but did not include data from two other Ohio jails that hold detainees for ICE.
The Geauga County Safety Center and Northeast Ohio Correctional Center do not publish their rosters publicly online. Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, owned by CoreCivic, is the only privately-run ICE detention facility in the state.
"This report is significant because the government is not giving us accurate information about the people they're arresting and deporting. So, we have to go out and find it ourselves," said Lynn Tramonte, executive director of Ohio Immigrant Alliance.
"You have to understand that we're putting people who aren't being charged with crimes into a criminal jail. And I just think that's wrong."-Lynn Tremonte, executive director of Ohio Immigrant Alliance
Tramonte called ICE's arrests of Haitians "random" and compared them to Russian roulette, a game where a player puts a single bullet into a revolver, spins the chamber, then pulls the trigger to see if the gun will fire.
"When you attend your ICE check-in meeting, you don't know if you're going to be fitted with an ankle shackle, if you are going to be arrested and put in the Butler County Jail, or if you're gonna get to go home to your family," Tramonte said.
She said ICE is trying to terrify Haitian Ohioans into leaving the country.
In a statement on Friday, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told WOSU, "What we would say now is it’s closing time which means you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. The good news is it’s not too late to get a $3,000 check and a free flight home."
DHS has used this statement before.
DHS also said its law enforcement activities keep Americans safe and that TPS was always meant to be temporary.
Tremonte said that most Haitian Ohioans arrested by ICE are not immediately deportable, because they have ongoing civil cases.
"You have to understand that we're putting people who aren't being charged with crimes into a criminal jail. And I just think that's wrong," Tremonte said.
Ohio Immigrant Alliance's report found that Haitian women made up 2% of women detained by ICE in the jails prior to TPS ending. After, Haitians made up 39% of women who were detained.
Tramonte said those are women who have often already undergone horrors from sexual assault to watching their family members die. She said they were brave enough to make it to Ohio and strong enough to raise families and hold down jobs.
"It’s closing time which means you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here."- Department of Homeland Security statement
"These are the bravest, strongest people I know and to then turn around and go and put them in a jail because they are trying to save their own lives. I just, it's so shameful," Tramonte said.
The median age of Haitian detainees — 39 — was also higher than the median age of 33 for all ICE detainees this year.
But the Ohio Immigrant Alliance doesn't paint the full picture.
Tremonte said that in addition to not having access to the information from the two additional jails, Ohio Immigrant Alliance knows that Haitians who had been living in Ohio have been moved to facilities in other states, including Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania.
She said the total number of people in immigration jail in the U.S. is around 60,000.
"Sixty thousand people who are working through a civil court process sitting in a criminal jail. We need to be more mad about that. We're paying for that," Tremonte said. "And those people, they're not committing crimes. They haven't been charged with anything. This is obscene."
