COLUMBUS (WCMH) – Ohio lawmakers are proposing legislation that could take the state in two different directions when it comes to immigration.
On Tuesday, two northeast Ohio lawmakers announced their proposal in response to a proposal earlier in the week by a Cincinnati-area representative and the state treasurer.
State Rep. Dan Ramos (D-Lorain) and Rep. Stephanie Howse (D-Cleveland) said they want Ohio to welcome immigrants and want it to be a sanctuary state.
“Criminalizing people who are contributing members to our society is not the answer to solving unemployment and underemployment,” Howse said, listing a number of other social and economic issues.
Josh Mandel, the state treasurer, and Rep. Candice Keller (R-Middletown) introduced a proposal earlier this week to ban sanctuary cities.
“Mayors and city councilmen, they don’t get to pick willy-nilly what laws they want to follow and what laws they want to violate,” Mandel said, speaking to NBC4 by phone on Tuesday.
His and Keller’s proposal would make city officials criminally and civilly liable for crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. Officials could be charged with a fourth-degree felony and face prison time.
“We in the United States of America don’t arrest people and don’t lock people up for crimes they didn’t commit themselves,” Ramos said, calling the idea “ridiculous.”
Mandel said the goal of the proposal is to keep communities safe and prevent attacks in Ohio and the U.S. such as the ones that happened in Europe.
“My grandfather was from Poland, my grandmother was from Italy and they came here legally,” Mandel said. “But they did it the right way, they did it the legal way.”
Ramos and Howse called Mandel and Keller’s proposal a distraction.
“We have serious, real problems in this state and in this nation,” Ramos said. “Heroin, human trafficking, things we need our local law enforcement to work on. They cannot do their jobs if whole communities, whole neighborhoods, are afraid to talk to the police under any circumstances.”
Under Mandel and Keller’s proposal, local police could check immigration status if someone commits a crime and notify federal immigration authorities if that person is undocumented.
“They’re honest, they don’t steal. They have good work ethic,” Julie Nemecek said. “They’re loyal, they pay taxes.”
Nemecek is an attorney who’s worked with immigrants for 13 years. She said most of her clients do not have criminal records.
“They’re embarrassed about trivial traffic violations,” Nemecek said. “Maybe they had a red light, ran a red light 10, 15 years ago, and they’re ashamed of that.”
Ramos and Howse also said they believe requiring local police to enforce immigration would cost cities money. Mandel told NBC4 that was a “baloney argument” and that it wouldn’t be a big cost for cities to report undocumented immigrants who commit crimes.
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