CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Cincinnati City Council voted on Wednesday to restrict federal immigration agents’ access to city surveillance footage and city-owned property, a move supporters said is aimed at setting clear rules before a crisis erupts and comes amid heightened concern in the local immigrant community.
The council approved two motions in an 8-1 vote. One bars the city from allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or any other federal agency access to real-time surveillance footage from city-owned cameras or drones during civil immigration enforcement actions. The restriction does not apply in situations where law enforcement is trying to find a specific known criminal.
The second motion would put a similar ban in place for access to city-owned property such as recreation centers or health clinics.
The measures were sponsored by council member Anna Albi, who said the action was not prompted by any specific incident in Cincinnati but was a reaction to violence tied to immigration actions in Minneapolis and elsewhere…