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To urge all federal agencies and their employees, officers, and agents to follow standards of conduct substantially similar with those recommended by the City of Columbus Commission on Immigrant & Refugee Affairs when engaging in civil immigration enforcement activities with all residents of the City of Columbus
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WHEREAS, the city of Columbus Commission on Immigrant & Refugee Affairs (CIRA) was established to advise the Mayor and City Council on matters affecting the immigrant and refugee community, and to promote policies that advance inclusion, accountability, and public trust; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has deployed thousands of federal agents in large-scale operations across the country, including here in Columbus in what was known as “Operation Buckeye”; and
WHEREAS, according to first-hand accounts and widespread media coverage and analysis, these deployments included federal agents engaging in widespread racial profiling, intimidation, and harassment of the country’s immigrant and refugee communities; and
WHEREAS, federal agents have also been engaging with residents protesting across the country, and in many cases, have been combative and escalatory in their actions. Agents have used gas munitions and other less-than-lethal crowd control measures on peaceful protestors and, in the course of both immigration enforcement and crowd control activities, have shot and/or killed twelve residents just since September 2025; and
WHEREAS, DHS and other federal agencies are actively avoiding public accountability for their personnel by allowing face coverings and lack of identification for agents conducting civil immigration enforcement; and
WHEREAS, DHS is also putting its own agents at risk by not appropriately training many of the personnel deployed across the country in both immigration enforcement and crowd control methods. According to several news outlets, ICE allowed several hundred agents to advance without full federal law enforcement training due to a computer error, and had already dramatically reduced its standard training from twenty-two weeks to approximately eight weeks; and
WHEREAS, the City of Columbus requires its law enforcement personnel to properly display name and badge numbers, and to identify themselves upon request, while on duty, with very limited exceptions; and
WHEREAS, in response to a permanent injunction from the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio, Columbus Division of Police officers are not permitted to use gas munitions or other control agents against non-violent protesters; and
WHEREAS, The Commission’s Policy & Advocacy Committee has identified the need to strengthen transparency in law-enforcement operations and activities conducted by state and federal agencies; and
WHEREAS, the Council desires to hold these federal agencies to the conduct and standards we expect of law enforcement operations in the City of Columbus; now, therefore;
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That this Council strongly urges the following:
• That all federal agents conducting civil immigration enforcement operations and otherwise interacting with residents should visibly display identification, including their name and the respective federal agency they represent. Vehicles used for these operations should also be clearly marked with their respective federal agency’s official seal and lettering.
• That all federal agents should refrain from wearing non-medical face coverings, including gaiters, balaclavas, and other tactical face coverings while conducting civil immigration enforcement operations and otherwise interacting with residents.
• That DHS should ensure that all ICE agents deployed in Columbus, and nationwide, should be trained to the restored standard of 22 weeks, in line with other federal law enforcement training.
• That DHS, and all federal agents engaging in civil immigration enforcement and interacting with residents, should otherwise conduct themselves in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws, and the U.S. Constitution.
• That DHS, and all federal agents interact with the residents of Columbus, and nationwide, in a civil manner and refrain from using lethal force.
• That the Council of the City of Columbus urges federal law enforcement operating in Columbus to comply with city policies and ordinances to preserve safety and security for all residents.