Efrem Yemane Berhe, a Cincinnati father and small-business owner, has been locked up by federal immigration authorities since mid February, his family says. They say ICE agents grabbed him outside his house as he headed to work and that his sudden disappearance has left his wife scrambling to cover the mortgage while caring for their two young children. Relatives and neighbors have rallied around the case, appealing a judge’s decision and pushing for his release before his next court date.
According to his wife, Ksanet Desta, ICE agents detained Berhe on Feb. 16 just outside their Ohio home. She told reporters that several vehicles were waiting near the driveway as he got ready to leave. “It was early in the morning, 7 a.m. He was going to work. They blocked him and took him into custody,” Desta said, as reported by WCPO. The family says Berhe entered the United States legally in 2011, runs a small business locally and has no criminal record. They say the detention is tied to a civil immigration issue connected to a previous marriage.
Butler County jail is a regional ICE hub
Berhe is being held at Butler County’s correctional complex in Hamilton, which has become a major holding site for ICE detainees in southwest Ohio. Local reporting has documented how Butler County and other nearby jails now contract with the federal government to house large numbers of immigration detainees, a shift that has drawn sharp criticism from advocacy groups. As reported by Journal-News, the county jail has effectively become a regional hub for federal immigration custody.
Judge denied bond, green-card hearing moved up…