As the Trump administration ramps up efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, local actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are getting pushback.
Roughly 200 people gathered outside the Butler County Jail Sunday to protest arrests by ICE earlier this month. Those arrested included several people detained outside the Price Hill Kroger as well as a 19-year-old recent graduate of Western Hills High School named Emerson Colindres.
The jail in Hamilton has a contract with the federal government to house undocumented immigrants as they await deportation.
The protest came as deportation efforts by the Trump administration have stoked anger across the country. Trump indicated this weekend he will send the National Guard to address large-scale protests against ICE in Los Angeles, for example.
Colindres' mother Ada Bell Baquedano-Amador spoke to attendees at the local rally through an interpreter, saying her son had no criminal record and was complying with ICE requirements to make periodic check-ins and get an ankle monitor when he was arrested.
"All I ask is that you free my son," she said. "He doesn't deserve to be in this place."
The family came to the United States from Honduras in 2014 after Baquedano said she faced extortion from gangs there. An immigration court rejected the family's asylum claim in 2024, saying Honduras could do more to protect them. The family was on supervised release at the time of Colindres' arrest.
Members of Colindres' soccer team, his coach as well as former classmates and teachers came out to press for his release.
Teammate Josh Williams said he was shocked at Colindres' detention.
"He came here from Honduras when he was eight years old," he said. "He doesn't have any memories from there. The U.S.A. is his home."
After remarks from religious leaders, immigrant rights activists and the group Cincinnati Socialists, the crowd marched through several blocks around the jail.
The march was peaceful, though there was some tension between law enforcement and marchers when Hamilton Police attempted to get those protesting to stick to sidewalks instead of marching in the street.
This led to a confrontation between an officer and a small group of marchers in which the officer picked up one marcher while trying to move him off the street. Another marcher was pushed into a parked vehicle and detained as she confronted the officer. Police arrested her moments later.
The march returned to the Butler County Jail a short time after, where protesters continued chanting and speaking for another half hour.
"I'm so thankful for so many people to come out here to support somebody," Baquedano-Amador said about the turnout of supporters for her son. "I know not everybody feels safe doing that, so for so many to come out and take some of their time is excellent."
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