Columbus City Council passes emergency ordinances restricting ICE cooperation | 10tv.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus City Council passed five emergency ordinances and a resolution Monday night aimed at limiting how federal immigration enforcement operates within the city, a move that drew both support from council members and sharp criticism from Ohio's attorney general.

The legislative package comes in the wake of the Department of Homeland Security deploying immigration officers to Columbus and other cities.

Councilmember Lourdes Barroso de Padilla said the legislation was fast-tracked in part due to the looming end of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants, which expires next month.

Two of the ordinances directly address city employees, prohibiting Columbus police from partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out federal immigration enforcement and barring city employees from holding secondary employment with ICE or Border Patrol.

"Immigration is a civil issue and what we have seen is we have made a political choice in this country to detain people for a civil issue," Barroso de Padilla said.

Council President Pro Tem Rob Dorans cited the city's legal authority to act, saying, "We have home rule here in Columbus and in Ohio under Ohio's constitution," and pushed back against those who questioned the ordinances' legality.

"If the attorney general wants to say that we can't prohibit folks taking secondary employment with ICE, I'd like to see his legal reasoning behind that," Dorans said.

That criticism came from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who posted to X more than a week ago dismissing the measures, stating, "The legislation is as legally enforceable as the media advisory. It's a political stunt."

The Department of Homeland Security also responded to the council's actions, with a spokesperson warning in a statement that "when politicians bar local law enforcement from working with us, that is when we have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities."

The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 9 weighed in as well, with President Brian Steel releasing a statement noting that "municipal officers do not enforce federal civil immigration law," but adding that officers have "an absolute duty to assist our federal law enforcement partners where there is evidence of a criminal offense, valid judicial warrant, or when any officer — local, state, or federal — is in danger of serious bodily harm."

Dorans said the restrictions on police cooperation were designed to protect trust built between officers and Columbus residents.

"We don't want our officers who have done a lot of work to earn the trust of this community to see that trust go away because of the actions of bad actors," he said.

Among the remaining ordinances, one makes harassment, stalking or obstruction at schools and daycares a first-degree misdemeanor.

"Folks should face a higher penalty for trying to prevent and harass people for just trying to get their kids to school," Dorans said.

Two additional ordinances require a special use permit for any new detention center facilities in the city and restrict how federal immigration officials may use city-owned property, such as parking lots or vacant lots.

The council also passed a resolution urging federal immigration officials to refrain from wearing face coverings and to clearly display their names and badges during operations.

Barroso de Padilla framed the broader effort as an exercise in local authority.

"What we are trying to do is say in our city we do have the jurisdiction under the Tenth Amendment to decide how we want to interact with those federal policies and this is what we have chosen," she said.

Because the ordinances were passed as emergency measures, they will take effect as soon as Mayor Andrew Ginther signs them. He has 10 days to do so.