ICE detained more than 280 people in the central Ohio area during one week in December
by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal
January 12, 2026
More than 280 people in central Ohio were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in one week last month, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The arrests were made Dec. 16-21 during Operation Buckeye, which ICE launched in Dec. 16.
Ohio Immigrant Alliance reported last month that at least 214 people were arrested and were in detention as of Dec. 24. Ninety-three percent were men and 80% appear to be Latino, according to a report from the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. They said the actual number is likely higher.
“(ICE is) not here to make Columbus better,” Ohio Immigrant Alliance Executive Director Lynn Tramonte said in a statement last month. “They are bringing violence. When Columbus leaders said ICE makes our communities less safe, that is exactly what they meant.”
An ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Good was a U.S. citizen who, according to reports, was operating as a “legal observer.”
“We said ICE brings violence to our communities, and this is exactly what we meant,” Tramonte said in a statement Wednesday.
ICE did not respond to questions sent by the Ohio Capital Journal, but listed ten people who had been detained in the Columbus area with criminal charges through Operation Buckeye in a news release.
The homeland security department listed eight people who had been detained with criminal backgrounds.
“We operate in Ohio every day, but we recently surged our resources there under Operation Buckeye,” ICE Director Todd M. Lyons said in a statement. “Since Jan. 20, we’ve arrested drug traffickers, spousal abusers, thieves and worse.”
However, it’s unclear how many people ICE has detained have a criminal background.
“The facts really bear out that who they’re picking up are people with no criminal records,” said Angela Plummer, executive director of Community Refugee & Immigration Services.
Maqueli Eldredge, a paralegal at Legal Immigration Services in Dublin, said there are typically a few ICE reports every day, but there were more than 19 reports on Dec. 16.
“ICE has always been here in Columbus, but we’ve never seen anything like that,” she said.
Legal Immigration Services in Dublin began realizing an ICE operation was underway when calls started coming in from people saying their husbands never came home or their their spouse’s car was found abandoned, Eldredge said.
One of their clients was detained in Dublin when ICE officers pulled her over, she said.
“They don’t have any probable cause to pull over someone just because you have brown skin,” said Walter Messenger, a lawyer at Legal Immigration Services. “It’s just ridiculous that people have to go through this.”
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ICE took a break over Christmas and New Year’s, but have started detaining people in the Columbus area again, Eldredge said. There were three ICE reports on Monday last week and five on Tuesday, she said.
“They’re still here,” Eldredge said. “They’re still detaining people. We have clients being very afraid of going to their ICE visits and getting detained. But if they don’t go, they are considered absconder.”
Some of their clients have stopped sending their children to school, she said.
“They cannot go pick up the kids at school, or they’re afraid they’re just gonna take their kids,” Eldredge said. “It’s a tragedy. I don’t know how we’re gonna make it.”
Lack of space in detention centers became a problem for ICE last month, Plummer said.
“The practicalities became a problem because there wasn’t enough place to put people they were detaining,” she said.
There are six Ohio detention facilities that contract with ICE to hold people who have been detained: Butler County Jail in Hamilton, the Seneca County Jail in Tiffin, the Geauga County Safety Center in Chardon, the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio in Stryker, the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, and the Mahoning County Justice Center in Youngstown.
Of those who were detained in Operation Buckeye, 137 were taken to the Butler County Jail, 61 went to the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio, 10 went to the Seneca County Jail, three went to the Mahoning County Justice Center, one went to the Calhoun County Jail in Michigan, one went to the Hamilton County Jail, and one went to the Miami Valley Jail, according to an analysis by the Ohio Immigrant Alliance.
Eldredge said their clients who are being detained at Butler County Jail say it’s overcrowded.
“They cry,” she said. “They say there’s no food, too many people in the same cell.”
A few Ohio Democratic lawmakers sent a letter this week to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Director Annette Chambers-Smith asking the department to make sure there are safe conditions for people detained by ICE at Butler County Jail.
There were 1,044 people in Butler County Jail as of Thursday. The general housing capacity for Butler County Jail is 844, even though ODRC recommends 756 as the housing capacity, according to a July ODRC inspection report.
“This continued practice of exceeding safe capacity limits represents a fundamental failure to meet the state’s duty of care to those held in its facilities,” according to the letter, which was written by Ohio state Reps. Christine Cockley and Mark Sigrist, and Ohio state Sen. Bill DeMora.
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The operation also raised concerns about overcrowding at detention facilities, particularly Butler County Jail, where lawmakers have called for oversight to ensure safe conditions. ICE has since resumed detentions in the Columbus area following a brief holiday pause.
