Detentions of Greater Cincinnati immigrants have drawn protests this week. The demonstrations come as the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement across the country.
A group gathered outside a Department of Homeland Security office in Blue Ash Tuesday for a news conference pushing back on the arrest of Alonzo Tomas Mendez.
Mendez was one of several people Homeland Security agents arrested in East Price Hill May 31.
On Monday evening, a group of roughly 50 people gathered outside the Butler County Jail to protest the imminent relocation of 19-year-old Emerson Colindres, a recent Western Hills High School graduate arrested during a routine ICE check-in June 4.
Mendez arrest and news conference
Agents arrested Mendez and others in the parking lot of the East Price Hill Kroger. A statement by ICE released afterward says the agency arrested four people that day on immigration related charges.
Advocates say Mendez was with his partner and two children, ages 4 and 7, shopping for birthday party supplies when his "traumatic and unnecessary" arrest occurred. They say he is a law-abiding person with a seminary degree and should be released on bond.
"This is a guy whose goal was only to take care of his family, to love God with all his heart," said Walter Vasquez from the Ola Immigrant Welcome Center. "He was active in his church here in Cincinnati, and he's looking for an opportunity to be with his family. He is looking for an opportunity for a better life for his kids because, at home, he could not find that [because of a] lack of opportunities, poverty and other things."
Mendez came to the U.S. from Guatemala about three-and-a-half years ago. He had an immigration hearing scheduled for June 17 at 8 a.m., but Vasquez says it was canceled for unknown reasons. Vasquez says Mendez now has an attorney but declined to provide a name or contact information.
"This is not affecting only undocumented people," Vasquez said. "We have kids who are U.S. citizens, who are in the community, who are afraid if their parents are going to come back from work, or parents who are afraid of going to work because of the conditions."
ICE's press office has not yet responded to request for comment about Mendez's case.
Advocates are asking that Mendez be released on bond while pursuing his case.
Protests for Colindres and his relocation
Monday's protest outside the Butler County Jail came together last minute. Colindres' mother, Ada Baquedano Amador, says she received a call from him earlier that afternoon. He told her ICE would be moving him that night.
"They haven't told him anything else about what's going to happen, just that they're moving him," Amador told attendees through an interpreter. "I think they need to be a little more humane so that we might have answers."
A spokesperson for the Butler County Sheriff's Office told WVXU Colindres was released from the jail at about 1:30 a.m.; the Sheriff's Office transported Colindres to an airport in Michigan, where ICE took custody of him.
Responding to WVXU's request for further information, the ICE press office provided a statement: "ICE routinely transfers detainees between facilities for various reasons such as capacity, security or logistical needs."
WVXU could not locate Colindres in an online database of current ICE detainees.
Many of the people who gathered for the protest played soccer or attended school with Colindres. His soccer coach, Bryan Williams, said Colindres was a model student, athlete, and friend. He added that the manner in which the Trump administration was carrying out its immigration policy troubled him.
"It's not just Emerson — there's probably hundreds in there just like him, and thousands across the country if not more," he said. "They're sending them back to countries by themselves where they don't know where to go."
Colindres' mother says the family came from Honduras in 2014 to escape gang violence and extortion. Emerson was a young child at the time and has little memory of the country he's being sent back to, advocates say. The family filed asylum claims, but those were denied in 2023.
Asked about the case at an unrelated news conference Tuesday morning, Gov. Mike DeWine said he thinks the vast majority of Ohioans and Americans would support deporting undocumented criminals.
"But when you start looking at the other individual cases, there's a different situation," DeWine said. "Someone comes here at the age of two, they're brought here by their parents. Because they weren't born here, they're not a citizen, but they're contributing members. They might be in school, they might be working. There's a different situation. We've got, as a country, to sort that out."
The protest for Colindres was the second at the facility this month. An earlier event drew a large crowd and included a march through nearby blocks in Hamilton.
The jail has a contract with the federal government and has housed between 300 and 400 people on immigration holds in recent weeks.
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