The Mayor’s Office has never officially called Columbus a sanctuary city, but unofficially since 2017 conservatives and MAGA have attacked it as such. This was the year of new immigrant friendly policies enacted by the Mayor’s Office, such as ordering Columbus police to never ask anyone whether they are undocumented.

Back then, police were instructed to “don’t ask, don’t tell” – and do not alert ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), unless in response to a court order. No local tax dollars would be used to enforce federal immigration policy either, while services will be offered to all immigrants who are in need.

These policies are still in place, but here comes a new wave of fear and loathing, and perhaps on a far greater scale. Fear of being undocumented, and loathing from those who support a vindictive Trump 2.0. Conservative think-tanks rank Columbus one of the top-10 largest sanctuary cities, and you don’t need to be Cesar Chavez to realize what side most of the Columbus police and others are on.

Also approaching fast is Ohio House Bill 666 (you read that correctly) or the “Protecting Ohio Communities Act”. Sponsored by members of the GOP-besieged Statehouse, it proposes that law enforcement must comply with federal immigration law. The unauthorized or undocumented must be reported to ICE. If sanctuary cities do not comply, they lose federal funding.

Depending on whom to believe, “The largest deportation program in American history,” may take place, or is a certainty. The Free Press reached out to the Mayor’s Office for a response if Ohio House Bill 666 were to soon become law.

“Mayor Ginther’s Executive Order 2017-01 has served as the city’s prevailing guidance on immigration policy for the past eight years. Should new policies be implemented at the federal level, we’ll continue to evaluate how best to serve Columbus residents. We decline to speculate internally or externally on hypothetical scenarios,” stated City spokesperson Melanie Crabill in an email.

Also in 2017 was how more and more ICE agents began stalking our community. The Ohio Hispanic Coalition told the Free Press ICE would wait outside the homes of alleged undocumented immigrants, follow them in unmarked cars, pull them over without cause, and make an arrest if they could not provide proof they are American.

“Basically, it’s like a kidnapping,” Josué Vicente, the executive director of the Ohio Hispanic Coalition, told the Free Press back then.

Some good news is, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance led by Lynn Tramonte of Cleveland, has been pushing back against ICE for nearly 20 years, especially during Trump’s first term.

“Between 2018 and 2022, ICE jail capacity in Ohio fell 90 percent, from a high of 596 beds per day at five jails, to a low of 59 beds at two facilities today. As a result, deportations across the entire Detroit Field Office [that oversees Ohio] area of responsibility fell by 63 percent,” Tramonte told the Free Press.

However, Tramonte agrees with other immigrant activists that Trump’s second term will indeed be worse, if not ruthless, with his MAGA minions falling in line and goose stepping behind ICE.

“Now you’re going to have police vigilantism and local vigilantism,” she said. “The reason Ohio is going to be bad from the beginning is that there’s so much eagerness from the general public who think, suddenly, they can do whatever they want, and call ICE on their neighbor.”

She continued, “We can’t believe Trump’s lies. When he says criminals, he’s talking about everybody, he’s not talking about people who committed a serious crime. He means everybody.”

No doubt, the willing participants in Ohio are local law enforcement, and for reasons that may not be so obvious or out in the open, she says.

 “We have a lot of county jails in Ohio. They would much rather fill them up with immigrants and get federal money then try to have them be vacant. A lot of county jails in the smaller parts of Ohio don’t really have a crime base and shouldn’t be around. I could see local police in far flung areas of the state wanting to get involved to get federal contracts.” 

One aspect, one thing very apparent in Columbus’s immigrant community (which also includes many Africans), is that many “are really frightened, and if people want to believe it’s smoke and mirrors, that may be wishful thinking,” says Tramonte.

“New immigrants are still on the road seeking asylum, so they are not deportable. And so, what’s going to happen to me? They could still put them in jail and leave them to rot. One theory is that some people will sign their own deportation order. 

“The people that are really hunkering down and laying low are the people who have been here for a long time and those are the people who have decades of family relationships and work relationships, and businesses.”

As everyone knows, Springfield, Ohio and its Haitian community became MAGA’s paranoid epicenter of blame and shame. Tramonte has heard some Haitians have moved out of Springfield to other parts of Ohio and other states, but it’s not a huge amount of people. 

“We don’t really know, is he [Trump] going to come down harder on Blue states? Is he going to come down hard on Ohio because he has a willing police army? How’s it going to happen, where’s it going to start? We don’t know that,” she said.