1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

I am writing to you today as a constituent in Ashtabula. I wish to express my profound outrage regarding the escalation of ICE enforcement actions in Ohio and across the country. I demand that you take immediate legislative action to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), close all detention centers, and free the thousands of individuals currently held in cages despite having committed no crimes. This humanitarian crisis is exemplified by the case of Carlos Amaya, a 21-year-old resident of Ohio. Despite having a valid work permit, a Social Security number, a state driver’s license, and deferred action status granted by the government, Mr. Amaya was arrested during a workplace raid in Canton. He has been held at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center for over eight months. ICE is increasingly using "collateral" designations, a catch-all term for arresting anyone in the vicinity of an operation regardless of their legal status or criminal history. In Ohio, collateral arrests accounted for nearly one in five arrests between August 2025 and February 2026. While ICE claims to target the "worst of the worst," data shows that in 2025, 70% of those arrested in Ohio had no criminal convictions. The agency is prioritizing "entry categories" over actual public safety, effectively criminalizing the act of seeking asylum. Asylum is a right protected under both U.S. and international law. ICE arrests in Ohio have skyrocketed from 880 in 2024 to over 3,600 in 2025. In the first two months of 2026 alone, arrests have already surpassed the total for all of 2024. This is not a security measure; it is a state-funded humanitarian crisis. Taxpayer dollars are being used to point guns at documented workers in bathrooms and to tear young men like Carlos Amaya away from their communities. This administration’s policy of ending bond for many detainees forces individuals to languish in jail for months while navigating a civil court process, a practice that is both morally repugnant and fiscally irresponsible. I urge you to stand on the right side of history. Please work to DEFUND ICE, CLOSE THE DETENTION FACILITIES, and RELEASE THE DETAINEES who, like Mr. Amaya, have done everything "exactly the way they should be doing it." I look forward to hearing about the specific steps you will take to address these injustices.