Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb on Tuesday said his administration would cooperate only with immigration arrests involving people who had committed violent crimes.
The mayor issued the statement after news outlets reported that federal authorities had detained workers at a taqueria in Cleveland Heights. At a Cleveland City Council meeting last night, Ward 14 Council Member Jasmin Santana said she planned to meet with Bibb on Tuesday to discuss the city’s stance on such arrests.
“I fully condemn the concentrated effort to threaten and terrify our most vulnerable populations,” Bibb’s statement said. “Arresting immigrants working in a suburban restaurant does not make us safer.”
So far, Cleveland police have not been asked to assist with federal immigration arrests, City Hall spokesperson Sarah Johnson said.
It was unclear exactly how many people have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Northeast Ohio in the eight days since President Donald Trump took office.
The Geauga County Jail, which holds people arrested by ICE, housed 58 immigration detainees this week – a typical head count for the past several months, a sheriff’s department official told Signal Cleveland.
Sandro Galindo, a Cilantro Taqueria co-owner, told News5 and WKYC that six employees were detained by immigration authorities Sunday afternoon.
Bibb has previously said that he wouldn’t oppose the detention of unauthorized immigrants with criminal records. His statement Tuesday suggested that Cleveland would help ICE only in the case of violent crimes.
“My administration will not engage in the deportation of individuals who have not committed violent crimes,” the mayor’s statement said. “No law requires that we do so. Cleveland police are tasked with protecting public safety, and while we will take action against anybody who commits violent crimes, we are not enforcing general federal immigration law.”
The statement was a change in tone for the mayor. In an interview earlier this month, Bibb used the word “illegals” when referring to unauthorized immigrants who had committed crimes. The word choice – discouraged by immigrant advocates for its disparaging connotations – upset some readers on social media.
Speaking about immigrants broadly in Tuesday’s statement, Bibb referenced immigrant contributions to the city.
“Immigrants are human beings,” Bibb said. “They have elevated our home by contributing their talents and cultures here. They support our economy. They attend our churches. They are our neighbors. Immigrants have been integral to our city’s story for generations.”
In a floor speech at Monday night’s council meeting, Santana said it was disheartening that the arrests weren’t met with more protest. She met with Bibb on Tuesday afternoon and told Signal Cleveland afterward that she was grateful for the mayor’s statement.
Santana said she knew the city couldn’t stop ICE from making arrests. But she wants the city to have a plan for reacting to immigration raids, she said.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty taking place, and people don’t know where the city stands on this. So I thought that was important,” Santana said of the mayor’s statement. “But right now, to be honest, we don’t know, we really don’t have a plan.”
