ICE Raids Start in Northeast Ohio as Trump's Mass Deportation Policies Play Out Nationwide

Donald Trump at the RNC in Cleveland Credit: Emanuel Wallace

The culture of fear provoked by President Trump’s vow to lead the largest mass deportation scheme in Unites States history touched down in Northeast Ohio this weekend as the president issued new quotas and ICE descended.

Nationwide, since last Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers across the country, from Chicago to Miami, have made a combined 2,373 arrests of allegedly undocumented persons—with a total of 956 people detained just on Sunday.

On Monday, ICE confirmed that 20 of those arrests were carried out across Northeast Ohio, with those being detained held at the Geauga County Safety Center in Chardon, the Geauga Maple Leaf reported.

At least one of those being detained, a witness told Scene, was a worker at the Cleveland Heights location of Cilantro Taqueria, which was closed Monday following the visit by at least three ICE agents.

That arrest happened around 4:42 p.m. on Sunday, the witness to the raid told Scene, who saw one of the workers being escorted out to a white van.

Reports of the arrest(s) have made waves on social media.

Cilantro Taqueria declined to comment to Scene but Cleveland Heights, in a statement to reports on Monday, said: “The City of Cleveland Heights did not have prior knowledge of, was not involved in, nor did it cooperate or coordinate with federal officials from ICE in a raid on Cilantro Taqueria. The alleged raid and detention of persons at this establishment have not been confirmed by the City of Cleveland Heights at this time.”

Such arrests have prompted a wave of sympathy for work places like Cilantro Taqueria, with floral bouquets popping up next to signs reading “Te queremos y te apoyamos” (“We love you and support you”).

“There are so many rumors and so many stories going around,” Patrick Espinosa, an immigration attorney in Painesville, told Scene. “I’m really having a tough time trying to keep track of them all.”

Hearsay signaling who or what might or might not be next has been melding with the often muddled interpretation of the seven immigration-related executive orders the Trump administration rolled out on January 20. Conjecture and unconfirmed reports on social media have mixed with legitimate incidents.

Since Monday, 1,200 Northeast Ohioans have signed a petition—“DO NOT Allow ICE Into Our Schools”—to put pressure on the Painesville school’s superintendent, Josh Englehart, to ensure parents ICE won’t be able to enter school doors as Trump’s mass deportation policy suggests.

“Please spread awareness about this violation of a safe space for our city’s growing youth,” Grace Romig, a local activist and creator of the petition, wrote. “And the clear violence of tearing away their ability to attend school and learn without living in fear of an unannounced, racially-motivated ICE raid.”

In other language, that Englehart just doesn’t care.

“That’s absolutely, absolutely, absolutely not true,” Englehart told Scene in a phone call.

“We are prepared to do everything that we can to make sure that the protections of students and families are upheld,” he added. “We’re absolutely not going to simply grant [ICE agents] access to our students and families.”

ICE officials didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Of the two dozen executive orders President Trump theatrically signed at the Capitol One Arena and the Oval Office, nearly a third of them pertained to his administration’s promises of placing a vice-grip on the nation’s policies for allowing in foreigners for work or for asylum.

So far, they’ve shown the brunt of what orders of such kind can do—and how quickly Biden-era views of immigrants could be toppled.

They’ve ordered the end of an app to expedite legal border crossings; ordered end of all “categorical parole programs” that shield asylum-seekers; shown intent to cut birthright citizenship; slashed the Biden-era form of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program; reinstated the “Muslim Ban”; ordered the Department of Homeland Security to suspend applications for refugees; directed military officers to the border; asked for state governors’ help to continue constructing the border wall; and directed DHS to draft up a report on all foreign nationals that have entered the U.S. since January 20, 2021.

And, in probably the most relevant to this weekend’s raids, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” orders DHS to pursue expedited removal of any immigrants that have “criminal offenses,” who have arrived in the U.S. by sea, have been found on U.S. waters, or any undocumented person that’s been “apprehended within 100 air miles of any U.S. international land border.” (That’s Cleveland.)

That massive chunk of policy change—a revert to the stringent playbook of Trump’s first administration—is why Espinosa has been playing the role of fact-checker since Inauguration Day.

He told Scene that ICE seems to be pursuing undocumented immigrants with felonies or who have a current order for deportation.

“Most of the calls I’ve gotten are from people who are freaking out who shouldn’t be freaking out,” he said.

“If you have a work permit, or are in some kind of [immigration] proceeding, you’ll be fine. As long as you’re a law-abiding citizen, you’re protected by asylum laws,” Espinosa added. “Other than that, we’re on a case-by-case basis.”