This story has been updated with additional information.
GRATIS, Ohio – The village police chief and officer who visited Cincinnati schools to check on children for Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been placed on leave.
The council of Gratis, Ohio, a small village about an hour north of Cincinnati, unanimously decided April 19 to place Police Chief Tonina Lamanna and officer Jeffrey Baylor on paid leave pending an internal investigation into the two visiting three West Side schools on April 15 to conduct “wellness checks” on children for ICE.
Gratis Mayor Kevin Johnson said they were not told about the operation by Lamanna and only learned about what had happened when other police departments reached out.
Lamanna, on the other hand, told The Enquirer she had ICE’s backing for the visit and was provided with a list of children’s names and schools to check up on.
The council for the village of around 800 people deliberated in private session for nearly 45 minutes after closing the room to discuss “possible discipline of police personnel.”
“The Village of Gratis does not condone these actions. It is not the practice of policy of the Village to participate in law enforcement operations outside of our jurisdiction, particularly those occurring two counties away,” Johnson said in a prepared statement.
Johnson said he would appoint an interim police chief while the investigation is ongoing.
Gratis has two full-time officers, including Lamanna, and seven part-time officers, including Baylor, according to an Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy database.
Chief says she had ICE’s support for visit
In response to questions from The Enquirer, Lamanna said she had ICE’s authorization for the visit to Cincinnati before she drove down to several schools in the city.
Lamanna said these were the first welfare checks conducted since Gratis police signed an agreement with ICE to perform immigration enforcement last October.
Under the department’s agreement with ICE, trained officers are allowed to interrogate and arrest anyone within their jurisdiction that they believe to be unlawfully in the country.
Two months later, after she and Baylor were trained by ICE, Lamanna said the village’s council was told about the agreement.
ICE initiative aims to locate immigrant children
An ICE spokesperson previously confirmed the chief’s reason for being at the schools, saying her department “attempted to verify school enrollment and conduct welfare checks on children who arrived unaccompanied across the border.”
The spokesperson emphasized it was not an ICE officer or an enforcement action.
Last November, the agency launched an initiative with state and local partners to “protect hundreds of thousands of children who entered the country and were placed with sponsors under the Biden administration.”
The primary focus of this initiative is to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited, the spokesperson said.
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.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio police chief, officer who made ICE checks at Cincinnati schools put on leave
Reporting by David Ferrara and Aaron Valdez, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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