Jail adds 100-plus prisoners this week after ICE bust (Middletown Journal)

Jail adds 100-plus prisoners this week after ICE bust

By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer
10:57 PM Thursday, May 6, 2010

HAMILTON — Butler County law enforcement played a role in the arrest this week of more than 130 illegal immigrants and fugitives, but only as support and a detention locations.

Officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday, May 4, they arrested 137 foreign-born criminals and fugitives in central and southern Ohio during a four-day period ending late Monday in an operation targeting criminals and fugitives in violation of immigration laws. According to ICE officials, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati metro areas — 53 in the Cincinnati metro area, which includes Butler County, 77 in the Columbus area and six in the Dayton metro area.

The federal prisoners are housed in the Butler County Jail, which is the sheriff’s office role in the operation, according to Khaalid Walls, spokesman for the ICE Office of Michigan and Ohio.

Hamilton police was included in list of participating agencies in an ICE news release, but Hamilton police Chief Neil Ferdelman said Wednesday his force did not participate in the operation. “I was surprised to read it myself in the paper,” Ferdelman said
Walls said all the police agencies where arrests were made were included in the release as a “courtesy” but Hamilton police did not play an active role. Arrests were made in the city, but Walls did not know how many.

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said his department routinely houses ICE and other federal prisoners because of its 287 G status, which allows local authorities to assist in enforcing federal immigration laws after receiving special training.

“I will say we are pretty full at the jail right now,” Jones said.

The ICE prisoners likely will stay in Butler County awhile because the video systems permit them to be arraigned via camera throughout the country, Jones said.

All 137 arrested were either fugitives, re-entered after previous deportations, or have been convicted of other crimes in the U.S., according to ICE. Because of their serious criminal histories and prior immigration arrest records, at least 25 of those arrested during the enforcement surge face federal prosecution, ICE officials said.