Twenty-five current and former pastors from various religious denominations in Ohio signed a letter addressed to Butler County commissioners and the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, calling for reforms in the treatment of immigrant detainees at Butler County Jail, on Sept. 9.
“We are left troubled by the fact that immigrant detainees are treated the same as prisoners convicted of crimes,” the letter said.
The Butler County Jail is one location in the area where immigrants are being detained, including Ayman Soliman. The former journalist had asylum status and worked as a chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, but that status was revoked in June. He has been held in the Butler County Jail since a July 9 check-in at the Homeland Security Office in Blue Ash ended in his arrest.
“Many of the immigrants we work with in our churches were in the US legally until government rules changed making them deportable, or in other ways fell into the cracks of our complex immigration laws,” the letter said.
Some of the clergy members toured the Butler County Jail on Aug. 13 and met with representatives from the sheriff’s office. The letter said that Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer stated that there are fewer behavioral issues among immigrant detainees at Butler County Jail than there are among American citizens incarcerated at the jail for criminal offenses.
“The conversation and tour enabled us to see the human side of those who work at the facility, and how they are individuals with individual perspectives,” the letter said.
However, the clergy members noted a list of changes they deemed necessary to improve the treatment of immigrant detainees at the jail. The recommendations include turning off the lights in detainees’ cells at night to allow for healthy sleep, allowing detainees to have more time outside, providing necessary mental health services, improving the quality of prison food and providing access to medical and dental care.
The pastors also called for better training for guards, noting that detainees told the clergy members that while most guards are professional and respectful, some have acted “petty, insulting, and abusive.”
The letter also included information on immigration law as interpreted by the courts, noting that detained immigrants are not convicted criminals and are therefore protected from punishment without due process under the Fifth Amendment while in U.S. custody.
“We believe Butler County should not be cooperating with ICE in detaining our neighbors and thus in breaking up good families in our neighborhoods,” the letter said. “However, as long as the county is involved in this business, then conditions in the jail need to be significantly improved.”
The letter called on Butler County commissioners to set up a meeting with the group of clergy to begin improving the jail’s treatment of immigrant detainees.
