This story was updated with new information.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed officers from a small Ohio village police department visited Cincinnati schools this week to perform welfare checks on children.
Gratis Police Chief Tonina Lamanna and an officer visited three West Side schools April 15, claiming to be working on behalf of ICE and asking to do welfare checks. School officials refused them entry and they never made contact with any student, Cincinnati Public Schools Superintendent Shauna Murphy said.
An ICE spokesperson confirmed the Gratis’ department’s reason for being at the schools in a statement to The Enquirer late April 16.
“ICE does not target schools for enforcement actions. Yesterday, 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 in the statement. “To be crystal clear this was not an ICE officer or an enforcement action.”
Gratis, a village of less than 1,000 people about 45 miles north of Cincinnati, partnered with ICE to perform immigration activities. Trained officers are enabled to interrogate and arrest anyone within their jurisdiction that they believe to be unlawfully in the country, according to a copy of the agency’s agreement with ICE.
The ICE spokesperson said 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.
“ICE Homeland Security Investigations is dedicated to locating the 450,000 unaccompanied children that came in through the border under the Biden administration,” the spokesperson said. “Sadly, during those four years, many of these children who came across the border unaccompanied were placed with unvetted sponsors who were actually smugglers and sex traffickers.”
According to an ICE memo, the initiative states an addition goal to support ICE in locating these children and ensuring their “immigration obligations” are met.
Homeland Security Investigations agents will create “target packets” and coordinate with ICE on pursuing certain unaccompanied children. Then, agents will verify whether they are registered in school and coordinate with other federal officials on obtaining warrants.
Cincinnati officials condemn visit by out-of-town officers
On April 16, Cincinnati officials strongly condemned the unannounced visit from Gratis police. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval told Lamanna, her department and ICE to “stay out of Cincinnati.”
“It is patently ridiculous and inexcusable that a police chief from a small town an hour away from here would come into our city’s public schools unannounced … to intimidate our children and their families,” Pureval said.
Murphy said the visit was the first time anyone associated with or claiming to be connected to ICE has appeared at a Cincinnati public school since the start of the second Trump administration.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: ICE says officers were performing welfare checks at Cincinnati schools
Reporting by David Ferrara, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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