Days after two police officers from a nearby county visited three Cincinnati schools to make welfare checks for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, local officials said the out-of-towners were out of bounds.
“I don’t know what they were thinking,” Chief Anthony Dwyer with the Butler County Sheriff’s Office told The Enquirer. “They were out of their jurisdiction. We don’t go out of our jurisdiction. We stay in Butler County.”
The police chief and an officer from the village of Gratis, Ohio, traveled 50 miles south to Cincinnati and visited three Cincinnati Public Schools to conduct “welfare checks” on immigrant children April 15.
The village’s police department has an agreement with ICE and may have been performing the welfare checks as part of a newer program called the UAC (Unaccompanied Alien Child) Safety Verification Initiative. Butler County is participating in the program, but Dwyer said deputies do not go into schools.
Speaking with Enquirer media partner Fox 19, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones also said the Gratis officers shouldn’t have left their jurisdiction. He called their actions an “embarrassment.”
What is the UAC initiative?
The Department of Homeland Security says 450,000 unaccompanied kids were brought to the United States illegally and placed in homes with “unvetted” sponsors during former President Joe Biden’s administration. In November 2025, ICE began working with local law enforcement agencies across the country to locate those children.
The Trump administration has located more than 145,000 children, an ICE spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The agency did not answer a question about how many unaccompanied children live in Greater Cincinnati.
The UAC initiative directs local law enforcement to conduct welfare checks on these minors. Law enforcement agencies with 287(g) contracts ‒ agreements that allow them to cooperate with ICE ‒ can participate in the program.
Butler, Warren and Clermont counties in Ohio; and Campbell and Kenton counties in Kentucky have 287(g) agreements with ICE. But Butler County is the only Ohio sheriff’s office in Greater Cincinnati taking part in the program related to unaccompanied children.
An ICE memo states Homeland Security Investigations agents will create “target packets” and verify whether the children are registered in school and coordinate with other federal officials on obtaining warrants.
Dwyer said the UAC initiative is not about immigration enforcement. Minors are not being arrested or detained in the county for their immigration status.
“There’s a lot of nefarious stuff going on with these unaccompanied minors,” he told The Enquirer. “This is just trying to locate unaccompanied children and making sure they’re safe. And if they’re not, taking the appropriate action to protect them.”
The federal government sent the sheriff’s office the last known address and sponsor guardian of unaccompanied minors in Butler County. Deputies are tasked with going to that address and making sure the child still lives there and is safe.
Deputies report back to the federal government about the child’s location and their safety, Dwyer said.
Can the officers go into schools?
Dwyer said deputies with the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, which has been conducting these welfare checks for months, do not go into schools. They go to the address of the child’s known sponsor.
“We’ve had some good successes where we’ve found the kids, they’re actually where they’re supposed to be, they’re enrolled in school and they’re doing fine,” he said. “And we’ve had some failures, where we don’t know where they are, and it’s really sad to say.”
It’s unclear whether the UAC initiative allows officers to go to schools for welfare checks. In an emailed statement, an ICE spokesperson said the agency “does not target schools for enforcement actions.” However, these welfare checks are not considered immigration enforcement.
“On Wednesday, a local law enforcement partner attempted to verify school enrollment and conduct welfare checks on children who arrived unaccompanied across the border,” the spokesperson said. “To be crystal clear this was not an ICE officer or an enforcement action.”
Village of Gratis police at center of story
Gratis Chief Tonina Lamanna visited the CPS sites April 15, saying she was making wellness checks on students. The schools rebuffed her and a fellow Gratis officer when they showed up at Western Hills University Academy, Rees E. Price Academy and Roberts Academy, the school district said.
Lamanna and her colleague identified themselves as law enforcement officers to front desk staff, the district said. She told the district lawyer later that she was doing ICE work.
The officers had a list of students they were checking on, or implied they did, district spokesman Joe Wessels told The Enquirer. But the conversations at the schools ended before the officers presented any names, he said.
Gratis is a tiny village, with about 850 residents, in Preble County. Its police department signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE in November.
Officials continue to react
Jones and Dwyer were not the only officials reacting to the Gratis news on April 17.
Ohio Rep. Cecil Thomas, a ranking member of the public safety committee, is calling for an investigation from the Ohio Department of Public Safety following the unscheduled visit. It appeared to be “highly unusual” for someone from another agency to come to a local school, he said.
That department oversees the certification process for police officers in the state. Thomas said he’s still gathering facts and acknowledged that the situation might have been legal, but could have been handled in a better way.
In Gratis, meanwhile, Mayor Kevin Johnson is working to set up a meeting for April 19 to discuss the situation.
The agenda item for the coming meeting will read something like “possible discipline action of police personnel,” Johnson said, adding that it will be considered behind closed doors in executive session.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: ICE looks for kids who crossed border alone. Can they go into schools to find them?
Reporting by Victoria Moorwood, Cameron Knight and Patricia Gallagher Newberry, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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