COLUMBUS, Ohio - As President Donald Trump starts his second term, Ohio Republicans are weighing moves to block local governments from ignoring federal immigration laws.
“The Supreme Court has been quite clear that immigration is a federal issue, not a local issue,” Attorney General Dave Yost wrote in a Jan. 15 letter to lawmakers. “Local governments are no more free to make up their own immigration policy than they are to print their own money.”
Yost wants Ohio to officially outlaw “sanctuary cities,” municipalities that limit their cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The word “sanctuary” has no legal definition, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. It’s an umbrella term for a range of policies cities use. It can include local law enforcement not sharing immigration statuses with ICE and declining detainer requests to keep people in jail until ICE can collect them.
Sanctuary cities can also provide legal services for immigrants and challenge federal policies in court.
Counts of sanctuaries vary. The Center for Immigration Studies think tank lists four sanctuary jurisdictions in Ohio, including Lorain County. But at least eight Ohio cities passed ordinances in opposition to Trump’s immigration policies during his first term as president.
For example, Columbus never officially labeled themselves a sanctuary city, but police don’t hold inmates beyond their release dates.
Yost can’t stop cities from filing lawsuits or offering legal aid, but Republican lawmakers can try to block them from ignoring detainer requests.
He wants refusing to comply with requests from federal officers added to Ohio’s dereliction of duty statute.
“This is not an anti-immigrant proposal,” Yost wrote in his letter. “This would be directed only at situations in which federal officials are carrying out their duties regarding persons not lawfully present in the country.”
Kenyon College immigration law professor Chris Levesque isn’t convinced such a law would hold up in court.
“There will be a lot of pushback there, and a lot of claims that local law enforcement don’t have the jurisdiction to coordinate with ICE and enforce federal immigration law,” Levesque said.
It could also put a financial strain on local jails if the law didn’t come with money to cover the costs of extended detainments.
“I think there is a political motive to target these sanctuary cities,” Levesque said. “They’re trying to squeeze these sanctuary localities out of resources.”
State Rep. Josh Williams, a Republican from Sylvania Township in northwest Ohio, introduced a bill called Protecting Ohio Communities in the last two-year session of the general assembly.
House Bill 666 would have required local police to “share information about arrestees with federal immigration authorities” and “honor federal detainer requests.”
Cities or agencies that didn’t follow the law would become ineligible for homeland security funding and 10% of its Local Government Fund distributions.
The bill didn’t pass before the session ended late last year. But Williams told Cleveland.com he’s drafting similar legislation this year and hopes to introduce it soon.
Anna Staver covers state government and politics for Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer.