Ohio sheriff defends new ICE partnership: ‘Just doing the right thing’

“It’s just doing the right thing.” 

That’s how Portage County, Ohio Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski summed up for Fox News Digital his decision to buck the trend of local leaders vowing to resist the Trump administration’s deportation efforts by allowing his deputies to assist ICE with immigration enforcement.

While many state and local leaders have doubled down on their support for undocumented migrants and pledged to resist the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, Zuchowski has gone in the exact opposite direction. 

Zuchowski has entered his northeastern Ohio sheriff’s office into what is called a 287(g) agreement with ICE, which will allow several of his deputies to be “dual commissioned” to enforce immigration law in addition to their regular law enforcement duties.

Portage County joins just two other counties in Ohio — Butler and Seneca — that have agreed to assist with immigration enforcement by signing onto the 287(g) program. According to Zuchowski, the agreement allows his deputies to make immigration arrests and to more efficiently coordinate with ICE to get criminal illegal aliens off the streets.

NEW MEXICO JUDGE RESIGNS AFTER ALLEGED TDA MEMBER ARRESTED AT HIS HOME

Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski spoke to Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. (Portage County Sheriff’s Office/ICE)

Despite all the controversy surrounding his decision, Zuchowski saw it as an obvious choice.

“People expect — there is an expectation that law enforcement is going to keep them safe and we’re going to do it by whatever means we have available to us,” he explained.

“There’s nobody, and I don’t care what party you are, that wants anybody criminal, whether they’re here legally or not, roaming around in their county and their communities. So, that’s all we’ve done,” he added. “At the end of the day, it’s just doing the right thing.”

Zuchowski, himself a former deputy sheriff, said that in the past, deputies would have to wait hours or even days for ICE to be able to pick up a criminal illegal alien. During the Biden administration, he said that he was even told that unless the illegal criminal had “severed heads” in the back of their vehicle or had committed some extreme heinous crime, ICE agents could not even come to check on the illegal.

MORE THAN 500K IMMIGRANTS MISSED THEIR COURT HEARINGS ON BIDEN’S WATCH: ANALYSIS

ICE Boston, law enforcement partners arrest illegal Brazilian gang member convicted of assault, battery in Massachusetts. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE))

Now, Portage County sheriff’s deputies will be able to make arrests of illegal alien and hold them until ICE agents arrive.

Zuchowski, who won re-election to a second term last November, clarified that his office would not be doing anything outside the normal law enforcement duties they are already conducting.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

“We’re not just going to randomly pull people out because of the color of their skin or the language that they speak, solely on that. It’s going to be, obviously, [because] they’re committing some sort of a criminal act, something that would, out of my deputy’s normal duty, [they] would have to respond to and have to react to. And that’s all we’re going to do,” he explained.

“The left likes to run with this type of thing and make it the worst possible scenario to where it’s like we’re kicking in Mexican restaurants and we’re kicking in dorms at universities and we’re going to go door to door and start pulling people out of their houses. That’s not what we’re doing at all,” he went on. “By doing this, I’ve just given my deputies another tool for their toolbox in order for them to do their job more proficiently and help keep Portage County safer.”

ALITO BLASTS ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ SCOTUS MOVE TO HALT TRUMP’S VENEZUELAN DEPORTATIONS: ‘LEGALLY QUESTIONABLE’

ICE’s federal law enforcement officers take Jorge Carvajal Castrejon, 36, into custody in Houston on Jan. 28. (ICE)

He noted that he is “surprised” more Ohio sheriffs have not already signed onto the 287(g) program because of how much safer he believes it will make their communities. He said he is hopeful more sheriffs will “do the right thing.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“We’re just doing our part as law enforcement to keep people safe,” he said. “Basically, it’s like President Trump walked into a large conference of law enforcement officials and said, ‘Hey, who wants to be a part of this 287-G Act and help ICE to be able to get criminal, illegal immigrants, migrants out of America?’ And I simply raised my hand.”