The Gratis Police Department is one of 10 municipal departments in Ohio that have signed agreements with ICE for officers to work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal database shows.
The Gratis police chief was placed on leave April 19, after she traveled 50 miles from her police station to visit three Cincinnati city schools looking for children on a list provided by ICE. Examining this department’s work with ICE showed that several more small departments in Ohio have signed up for these potentially lucrative agreements.
The 287(g) program, as it is called, has the potential to inject significant money from federal taxpayers into these departments.
So far, the Ohio municipal police departments that have signed up are very small and rural; the largest population served is about 2,100 residents. ICE advertised that it can fully reimburse annual salaries and benefits for officers trained to enforce immigration laws, and also provide “quarterly monetary performance awards” based on successful location of immigrants, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The Village Council in Gratis was concerned enough about Police Chief Tonina Lamanna’s action to launch an investigation and place her on leave. Lamanna told The Enquirer ICE signed off on all her actions and that she was provided a list of children’s names by the federal agency to check on for the Unaccompanied Alien Child Safety Verification Initiative. ICE outlines the program’s goal as tracking down unaccompanied children who crossed the border during the Biden administration to ensure they are safe.
Lamanna said her department signed on to the initiative in March. Under the program, officers trained under 287(g) can get reimbursed for finding out information on immigrant children by doing “welfare checks.”
Gratis police force has grown since ICE agreement
Since signing its agreement in November 2025, the Gratis Police Department has nearly doubled in size, hiring one full-time officer, four part-time officers and one auxiliary/reserve officer, according to state records.
In total, the department has two full-time officers, seven part-time officers and three auxiliary or reserve officers.
Gratis has tried and failed to pass a police levy three times in recent years. Rev. Bill Childress of the First Brethren Church in the town said the council knew about the ICE agreements.
“(Chief Lamanna) has been doing everything she can to help build up the department,” Childress said.
The Village of Gratis, which covers less than 1 square mile, has a population of about 850 people, according to census data. It is not clear how many of those people are immigrants of any status.
Cincinnati officials – and other agencies that do work for ICE – questioned why Gratis officers would be working outside of their jurisdiction. While 287(g) agreements specify work is to be done only in agencies’ jurisdictions, it’s unclear what ICE allows or has directed agencies to do for the unaccompanied child initiative.
The unaccompanied alien child initiative also says agents will “coordinate with other federal officials on obtaining warrants,” but it does not explain whether those warrants would pertain to immigration issues or other concerns like trafficking.
Chief Anthony Dwyer with the Butler County Sheriff’s Office said some of his officers have done these checks, but they have never done them outside Butler County and they have never gone to schools. Dwyer said his county’s deputies always visited homes in the evening and clearly stated they weren’t there to talk to anyone about their immigration status.
10 Ohio police departments have signed agreements
A total of 10 municipal departments in Ohio have signed agreements with ICE as part of the 287(g) program, which authorizes local officers to perform some immigration enforcement duties.
It is unclear how many of them are authorized to do the welfare checks on immigrant children. ICE publicized that the initiative was a partnership between the agency and its 287(g) partners, but Lamanna said her department signed an additional agreement in March to do the welfare checks. The Enquirer has requested this additional agreement but did not receive it before publication.
While the 287(g) program has existed since the 1990s, the Trump administration has been rapidly adding new partners. All 10 of the Ohio municipal departments have signed up since October 2025, with half joining since the beginning of 2026.
The largest of the 10 departments has just five full-time officers, according to state data. On average, these departments have two full-time officers, four part-time officers and some reserve or auxiliary officers.
Two of the departments, Pleasantville and Russellville, have no full-time officers. The Pleasantville Police Department, which signed up in February, was dissolved this month. The entire Sardinia Police Department was placed on leave this March following a series of misconduct allegations.
The Enquirer is seeking information about how much federal money these departments have received. In Butler County, ICE is not paying the full salary of officers but is paying for the time officers spend doing immigration-related work, Dwyer said. But he added that if an officer were to spend a full 40 hours a week doing immigration-related tasks, those reimbursements may add up to cover a full salary.
What departments have signed up
Seven of the 10 municipal departments are in Southwest Ohio.
Here’s a full list:
There are another seven county sheriff’s offices that are part of the 287(g) program: Butler, Clermont, Fayette, Lake, Portage, Seneca and Warren.
There are three “support types” under the program: warrant service officer, task force model and the jail enforcement model. All the municipalities have signed agreements under the task force model, while several sheriff’s offices have signed under that model and the warrant service officer agreement. Butler County also has a jail enforcement model agreement.
In Kentucky, nine municipalities have signed agreements. None are in Boone, Kenton or Campbell counties. The Falmouth Police Department in Pendleton County has signed an agreement. The Kenton County Sheriff’s office has both the task force model and warrant service officer agreements.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Small Ohio police departments are signing ICE agreements. What it means
Reporting by Cameron Knight and David Ferrara, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
