Several Northern Kentucky residents came out to a Kenton County Fiscal Court meeting Tuesday night to call for an end to the Kenton County Detention Center’s agreement to house ICE detainees.
“I love seeing families be able to walk to the park, be able to walk to church, just be able to walk around town, and I don’t want that to go away,” said RJ Johnson, a Covington resident. “I care about my neighbors. I want them to feel comfortable here.”
The meeting was well-attended, and Johnson was one of five speakers who came out to ask the Fiscal Court to reconsider an intergovernmental agreement to cooperate with ICE and house ICE detainees in the county detention center. At least one of the speakers had spoken about the same topic in December.
Many of the speakers referenced recent events involving ICE agents around the country, such as the death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen who was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Good’s death was followed by nationwide protests, which included demonstrations both in Northern Kentucky and in Cincinnati. Several of the speakers who talked with LINK nky said they had been spurred to speak out after having either attended a rally or seen calls to action on social media.
They called upon the county to terminate its so-called 287(g) agreement, a moniker that comes from the section in the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows ICE to delegate enforcement functions to local police departments.
All three detention centers in Northern Kentucky have contracts with the U.S. Marshals to house ICE detainees; on paper, ICE agreements are subcontracts with the U.S. Marshals. Yet, Kenton County is a comparatively latecomer to such agreements, only beginning to house ICE detainees in the middle of last year. In contrast, Boone County Jail’s contract with ICE goes back to 2005.
Kenton County Jailer Marc Fields, who attended Monday’s meeting, has been forthright about his point of view on ICE detention — and inmate detention more generally — in the county and has spoken about it in public before. In June, Fields and Kenton County Detention Center Col. Trey Smith talked about their goals for the program.
“We had worked very hard to try to get [population management] to benefit us in the community,” Fields told the Fiscal Court in June, expressing a hope that money brought in through the detention center could be used to augment various public services, including medical and addiction services, within the center itself.
“We receive over two times per [day] the amount for federal detainees versus state detainees,” Smith said in June. “And we’re also reimbursed for mileage, for transportation.”
Invoice records from the Detention Center indicate the center makes $88 per day per detainee, not including transportation and other reimbursements. Invoice records from the Detention Center to the federal government LINK nky had previously obtained indicate the Kenton County Detention Center invoiced anywhere from $41,272 in May (shortly after the contract began) to $271,392 as of the end of October. There were 157 immigration detainees in Kenton County as of the end of October, according to invoice records. LINK nky did not have immediate access to more up-to-date records.
County commissioners did not immediately respond to speakers’ comments, although later in the meeting, Commissioner Joe Nienaber made a point to compliment what he saw as the positive way in which the detention center was run.
Fields did speak briefly with LINK nky after the meeting about the speakers’ concerns.
“The one thing that we preach and we expect and we demand from our employees,” Fields said, “that everybody’s treated the same. I don’t care what you’re there for… They’re being treated just like every other inmate, and we will continue to do that.”