On July 27, the Department of Homeland Security ended Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, Syria and Yemen.
Temporary Protected Status allowed hundreds of thousands of Haitians, Syrians and Yemeni people to live and work legally in the U.S. while their home countries experienced political violence and turmoil.
With the change in legal status, locals in Springfield have noticed a heightened Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence and arrests in the community in recent weeks. Local law enforcement agencies are deciding what level of cooperation they want to have with them.
WYSO went directly to Ohio sheriff’s offices and police departments seeking more information on how the agencies plan to handle — or assist — in the increased ICE activity. Here's what we learned.
Many local agencies remain mum
Haitian immigrants are by far the largest population affected by the cancellation of TPS — not just in Ohio, but nationally. The Springfield area has the highest concentration of Haitians in Ohio, with estimates hovering between 12,000 to 15,000. Outside of that, notable population centers can be found in larger Ohio cities like Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Lima.
State, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies like sheriff’s offices and police departments are sometimes, but not always, notified about increased immigration enforcement activity.
Internally, these agencies may also have policies around how to respond in cases of local and federal jurisdiction overlap, as well as formal or informal agreements to support ICE operations.
WYSO reached out to the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association. This organization supports and coordinates information exchanges across Ohio’s 88 sheriff’s offices. They directed our reporter to contact individual sheriff departments.
WYSO asked five sheriff’s offices and six police departments in places with some of the highest Haitian populations to gain clarity on how they will handle local ICE activity.
Lima, Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati’s police departments didn’t respond to WYSO's requests for comment. But elected officials in both Cincinnati and Columbus have passed measures limiting the level of cooperation their police departments can have with ICE operations.
Both the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, which serves Columbus, and the Allen County Sheriff’s Office, which serves Lima, didn’t respond to WYSO’s multiple requests for comment.
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, which serves Dayton, declined to comment on the matter.
In an email, Clark County Sheriff Christopher Clark declined an interview request. But in an email, he wrote: “I am not at liberty to discuss any specific collaborations or plans that may or may not be in place regarding the end of TPS, however I can assure you that is the full intention of the Clark County Sheriff's Office to enforce the laws that we have a duty and authority to do so while simultaneously assuring that U.S. citizen's civil rights are protected.”
How ICE deputizes local law enforcement
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, however, stated it’s not planning to participate in the 287(g) program.
The 287(g) program authorizes “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to delegate state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under ICE’s direction and oversight,” according to the Department of Homeland Security website. Participation is voluntary.
In an email to WYSO, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office stated: “Our Justice Center currently houses individuals who have committed a crime. We follow standard immigration protocol - i.e., identifying undocumented persons who come into our jail; housing them; ensuring that they are processed through the criminal justice system; and communicating with agency partners who have documented reasons to enforce federal laws that allow them to take the person into custody.”
The statement continued: “We are currently crafting guidelines for our uniformed personnel who may encounter situations involving ICE enforcement at large. The primary goal of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in those situations will be to confirm identities of agencies to ensure that they are appropriately credentialed while enforcing federal law.”
There are three types of 287(g) agreements:
- Jail enforcement model, in which trained officers can question individuals in their custody they suspect of being noncitizen and use jail space for immigration detainers
- Warrant service model, which gives trained officers the authority to serve and execute administrative ICE warrants to individuals in their custody
- Task force model, which deputizes local officers to exercise some immigration enforcement authority during routine policing activities.
Both Dayton and Springfield also told WYSO they don’t have 287(g) agreements.
In an email, Springfield Police Chief Allison Elliot wrote that while the police department has partnerships with some federal agencies, “We do not have a federal partnership with DHS. We also do not have a 287(g) agreement with ICE, nor are we pursuing one at this time.”
None of the other agencies WYSO reached out to are listed on DHS’s list of agencies participating in 287(g) agreements, as of Aug 28.
According to research from the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, the Southwest and Western Ohio counties that reportedly do have agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) include Warren, Preble, Butler, Fayette, Adams, Clermont and Brown County.
Growing from zero to 20+ signed agreements with ICE
ACLU of Ohio published the report “ICE in Ohio” in March to document the expansion of immigration and customs enforcement contracts in Ohio in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term.
ACLU of Ohio staff submitted nearly 40 public records requests, as well as reviewed publicly available 287(g) agreement information from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025 to author the report.
“The cancellation of Temporary Protected Status for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of our neighbors and beneficiaries following the recent Supreme Court decision and local 287(g) agreements kind of converge to drastically heighten the enforcement and deportation risks for vulnerable and immigrant communities, essentially our neighbors,” Jocelyn Rosnick, who authored the report, said.
“This decision leaves long-term Ohioans vulnerable to immediate job loss and immediate deportation.”
At the beginning of 2025, Ohio had zero 287(g) agreements, said Rosnick, ACLU of Ohio’s chief policy and advocacy officer. Now, there are more than 20. Though agencies don’t have to have these formal agreements to support ICE operations in other ways, she said.
One of the main areas of concern is that local officials executing authority through these agreements are having to make judgments about complex areas of federal law, which Rosnick said is something that goes far beyond their ordinary duties.
“Federal law is very, very nuanced. And those types of judgments go far beyond their training and their ordinary duties,” Rosnick said.
“…They're very likely going to make mistakes such as arresting a U.S. citizen or a lawful resident or detaining individuals when it's not appropriate. So they're putting themselves at risk, not just for money or damages from a lawsuit, but that would also create a big loss of public confidence.”
Beyond the report, the organization will continue to monitor changes in the number of agreements. Their staff have also been compiling “Know Your Rights” materials for affected persons.
“Because at the end of the day, immigrants are valued members of our community. Immigrants are integral to our entire identity as a country and as a state here in Ohio,” she said.
“Many have come in search of a better life, more freedom, more opportunity. And the ACLU of Ohio is really concerned about the creation of this new show me your papers environment, which hearkens back to some of the darkest moments in our history as a country.”
Find updates on the list of agencies participating in the 287(g) program here.
