The United States has had a long and mixed history with immigration and as immigration has become more of a sensationalized issue than ever, the conversation has become a political weapon that puts much of the focus on "securing the southern border" making Texas the place most people think of when they think of immigration. But Ohio has had it's own role in immigration and this course explored what relationship Ohio and those who reside in it truly have with not only immigrants, refugees, and asylees but with ICE as well.

A Pathway to Citizenship

It's not easy to gain citizenship in the United States and although I knew that coming into the course, the realities of how difficult it can be to become a citizen of the United States became all the more real. The traditional pathway to citizenship would be for a person to get a Visa to come here for an extended amount of time. From there a person can apply for a green card, and then finally they can apply for citizenship. And while that seems like a straightforward and efficient way to grant something as coveted as US citizenship to a person, getting a green card can take years and even after someone is granted a green card, they typically have to wait at least five years before they can apply for citizenship. And during the entire process a person has to keep a clean record. The traditional pathway to citizenship is available for some immigrants, refugees that had obtained refugee status from the UN and were allowed into the nation through the US government, and asylum seekers who are granted aslyee status. But some people don't have the time, money, or means to seek citizenship through the very long and challenging traditional path, so they come to the United States without documents and live in a gray area, because once they enter without documents, there's generally no way to pursue citizenship at all, unless they become a victim of a crime. The children who are brought to the United States also live in a state of limbo where they also can't pursue full citizenship but can obtain DACA, a government status that allows the recipients to go to school and drive while also offering temporary protection from deportation as long as the person has their DACA updated and renews their status when required. But DACA recipients don't have the right to vote, access public programs, or any other government programs barred from them.

Ohio's Role

Many Ohioans think that immigration and the atrocities of ICE are far removed from them because they're so far away from the southern border, but what these people don't realize is that ICE actually has detention centers in Ohio. ICE has contracts that are very lucrative for county jails, and the people within these counties have actually voted in support of these contracts. Those who are being detained in these county jails often don't have a set "sentence" and have no idea when their detention will end. Those without documents being held in these facilities have oftentimes not committed any other crime than being undocumented and are isolated from their communities as other people without documents are unable to visit. Holding people in these facilities can be psychologically draining and holding them for an indefinite amount of time at any stage of their immigration case is a tactic being used because ICE is hoping they'll eventually get the immigrant to give up and say they'll be deported back to their country of origin after facing what seems like unending abuse and inhumane conditions. The most famous county jail detention center in Ohio was Morrow County Jail that has since been forced to cut ties with ICE after ICE pulled out of the contract as Morrow County was facing lawsuits from the ACLU for their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. While Morrow County Jail has been cut from ICE, there are still other county jails-turned-detention-centers in Ohio, such as the one in Butler county where abuse by guards has been publicly documented recently. These detention centers aren't the only places where Ohio intersects with immigration as there are many non profits within Ohio that are helping those who are undocumented, seeking asylum, or are refugees. These organizations are doing great work here. Individuals can help with immigration and while the system is corrupt and broken and Ohio is actively participating in it, the individuals we talked to during this trip remained hopeful, because they're doing work that has a direct positive impact for some of the people they're helping and for the issues they're working on.