Fallout of Immigration Raid in Butler County, Ohio

Joe Hodnicki of the Law Librarian blog has blogged (“Out Thy Neighbor – Butler County (Ohio) Sheriff Asks Us to Spy on Hispanics”) about Butler County, Ohio, where he lives, and the immigration “crusade” of its sheriff.  Well, Butler County remains in the immigration news.

Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said a raid at a Koch Foods plant in Fairfield earlier this week netted 161 undocumented immigrants, and about 80 remain locked up in southern Ohio jails.  All face deportation proceedings.  The undocumented immigrants arrested this week in Butler County asked a judge Friday to block federal authorities from moving or deporting them before they can meet with lawyers. “What we’re trying to do is just keep them here close to their families, close to their lawyers until we know what’s going on,” said Firooz Namei, one of their attorneys.

This is reminicent of INS practice in the 1980s and early 1990s of arresting and transferring undocumented immigrants from major cities (SF, LA) where they could obtain counsel to locations where it was more difficult to do so (El Centro, CA, Florence, AZ, Oakdale, LA).  The practice led to lawsuitsm including Orantes-Hernandez v. Meese, in which the district court issued an injunction limiting the practice.

KJ