A Cincinnati City Council committee passed three motions Tuesday aimed at further limiting city cooperation with immigration enforcement actions. They are expected to be up for a final City Council vote Wednesday.
"This Council, this mayor and the administration have been working for months now to understand the legal landscape before us during such unprecedented times, specifically as we look at immigration [and] how to protect our immigrant residents," said Council member Anna Albi. "These three motions clearly articulate that the city of Cincinnati believes our technology, our data, our property, our resources are for municipal purposes and should not be used unlawfully for civil immigration enforcement."
The motions passed in the Youth and Human Services Committee Tuesday are:
- Directing city administration to prohibit city property from being used as a staging area for federal immigration enforcement operations.
- Prohibiting the city from sharing any data from city-owned surveillance technology (such as cameras, drones and license plate readers) with any third-party for the purpose of civil immigration enforcement (unless mandated by law, a court order, or judicial warrant).
- Directing city administration to prepare a report on whether any city operations, programs, or public engagement activities collect citizenship or naturalization status information, and further directing the city to remove all such instances of that data collection.
See details and full motion language for each item later in this article.
"Our top priority is protecting our residents," said Mayor Aftab Pureval in a statement. "Right now, Council and our Administration are continuing to review the protections we have in place, the resources available to our most vulnerable populations, and our internal procedures to make sure constituents are safe. These measures are another critical step in that work."
"I want to be clear that is not all that we are doing," said Council member Evan Nolan. "We are finding every way possible to support our immigrant community."
Nolan says as an attorney, he has personally worked to help immigrants prepare estate paperwork.
"You can imagine a situation where an immigrant comes to our city, to our state legally, maybe under Temporary Protected Status — they take on a job, they maybe enter into a lease, or maybe they purchase real estate, they buy a car, they lease a car, they open a checking account. They do all of that legally, and then, because of a decision at the federal level, their legal status is stripped from them," Nolan said.
Nolan says if that person is detained or deported, those assets are not always easily available to family members left behind.
"A number of us have been working with the legal community and the nonprofits that serve immigrants to help get those estate planning documents in place," he said.
Council also passed a resolution in mid-January denouncing the shooting death of Renee Good by a federal agent in Minneapolis, and urging federal agents operating in Cincinnati to wear body cameras and to not conceal their identities.
Staging on city property
The motion was introduced by Anna Albi and co-sponsored by Seth Walsh and Ryan James.
It directs city administration to prohibit city-owned and city-controlled property from being used as "an unpermitted staging area, processing location, operations base, or any similar purpose in furtherance of federal immigration enforcement operations, unless federal officials have obtained a valid court order or judicial warrant."
The motion also directs the city to provide guidance for staff at municipal buildings and properties who may encounter federal agents engaging in civil immigration enforcement. That guidance would include the city's "long-held position" that such properties (like recreation centers, for example) are open "to provide specific services to members of the public" or for city use, and the properties should be accessed "for those purposes only."
See the full motion below (article continues after):
Prevent sharing surveillance data
The motion was introduced by Anna Albi and co-sponsored by Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney and Ryan James.
It directs the city to prohibit sharing any "real-time data, information or footage" obtained from city-owned surveillance technology with any third-party for the purpose of civil immigration enforcement, "unless mandated by law, a Court order, or judicial warrant."
Albi says the city does not have a contract with Flock, a license plate reader company that has faced criticism for contract language that allowed federal agencies to search data, potentially for immigration enforcement.
Cincinnati does use other license plate readers, has a large network of surveillance cameras, and is increasingly using cameras mounted on drones.
See the full motion below (article continues after):
Prevent collecting immigration status data
The motion was introduced by Ryan James. It directs city administration to prepare a report on whether any city operations, programs or public engagement activities collect citizenship or naturalization status information, and further directs the city to remove all such instances of that data collection.
"The second part of this motion is a demand," James said. "It is a demand that once we identify these workflows, we end them. That we no longer ask our residents for city-owned and operated programs in any way, shape or form, if they are citizens of the United States. We firmly believe that all of the residents in the city of Cincinnati, as well as our immigrant neighbors, deserve protection."
Unlike some other counties in Greater Cincinnati, Hamilton County has no official agreement with the federal government to help arrest, detain or transport people picked up on immigration-related charges. Cincinnati officials say the police department does not engage with federal immigration enforcement, and CPD officers are told not to ask about immigration status when interacting with the public.
See the full motion below (article continues after):
City funding for immigrant support
The city's fiscal year 2026 budget (which ends June 30) includes funding for a few organizations that work with immigrant communities:
- $49,000 for Cincinnati Compass
- $122,500 for Santa Maria Community Services
- $50,000 for the Hispanic Chamber Cincinnati USA
- $125,000 for the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center
City Council recently voted to give initial approval to an additional $210,000 for the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center, using money leftover from fiscal year 2025. Council will need to vote again at some point in the future to finalize the funding.
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