Stricter Immigration Enforcement Could Be Coming to Ohio

The Ohio state Legislature is off until mid-September, but there’s already a preview in place for what’s to come once the session starts back up. Lawmakers in this increasingly red state, which voted for President Donald Trump three times, are looking for stricter immigration enforcement.

Axios referenced several pieces of legislation being considered in Ohio, including Senate Bill 172, which passed the chamber before the summer recess and has been introduced in the House. Such a bill “would prohibit local governments and officials from interfering with the arrest or detention of any ‘person who is, or is suspected of being, unlawfully present in the U.S.,’” as Axios described it.

When the bill passed the state Senate last month by a vote of 23-8, state Sen. Kristina Roegner, a Republican who sponsored the bill, posted coverage to her X account from The Columbus Dispatch.

“Roegner, who is running for state treasurer, likened the rules to an incident in Boston where a judge there charged an immigration official with contempt for detaining a suspect leaving the courthouse,” that report noted, highlighting concerns with sanctuary cities like Boston.

“No courthouse in Ohio should be a sanctuary from the law,” Roegner stated in her post about why she introduced the bill. “Justice must be equal and accessible—not optional,” she added, also tagging Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump’s official account on X.

Axios and The Columbus Dispatch also both referenced a move from Franklin County Common Pleas Court judges to ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests within courtrooms without receiving a judicial warrant or order, with approval being required from a local judge.

There are also several other bills being considered, including one that deals with basic voting requirements to ensure illegal immigrants are not able to register:

• House Bill 26: It would require local law enforcement agencies to assist ICE agents or lose state and federal funding.
• HB 200: Called the America First Act, the bill would make it a felony for someone living in the U.S. illegally to “enter, attempt to enter, or be present in this state.”
• SB 153 and HB 233: Both bills would require showing proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, to register to vote.
• HB 281: This bill would withhold state grants and Medicaid funding from hospitals that don’t cooperate with ICE agents.

As the Axios piece also mentioned, a New York Times investigation showed that daily immigration arrests have gone up in every state since Trump took office for his second term. In Ohio, they’ve gone up by 209%.

For all these concerns about immigration arrests during the second Trump administration, it’s worth reminding that there were millions of illegal immigrant encounters during the Biden administration. Immigration was one of former President Joe Biden’s worst issues, and Americans are still suffering the consequences.

The border crisis brought on by the Biden administration has also impacted Ohio. As Erin Schniederjan discussed for The Heritage Foundation last August, the resettlement of Haitians in Springfield wreaked havoc on the town and created an emergency housing crisis, with Americans’ tax money also going towards those resettling. About 20,000 Haitians resettled there, in a town of only about 60,000 residents.

This trend for red states to go for stricter immigration enforcement comes as blue states are moving in the opposite direction, especially California.

At the state and federal level, officials have also been demonizing ICE agents, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has repeatedly called out Senate Democrats for blocking his immigration bills, including the Refugees Using Legal Entry Safely (RULES) Act, which would have aimed to fix our broken asylum system.

Another bill, the Larry Henderson Act, would set a new mandatory minimum of 20 years for those convicted of assaulting a federal officer.

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