CINCINNATI — On Wednesday, education and health care workers called for state leaders to reject a package of bills currently in Ohio’s state house that would give federal immigration officials more power and freedom in the state.
"Today we are standing together to fight for our students, patients and colleagues," said Theresa Kulbaga, English professor and president of the Faculty Alliance of Miami University.
The suite of bills being protested is referred to as the “Cooperation Package,” with every bill either mandating local municipalities to work with federal immigration officers or give them more freedom.
WATCH: What supporters and opponents say about the potential impact of the bills
"You make communities safer by building trust with that community, not by intimidating them by force and violence," Kulbaga said.
The package includes four bills:
- HB 281, which allows immigration enforcement in sensitive areas like hospitals
- HB 26, which mandates local law enforcement to report to federal immigration officers if they suspect someone in their custody is not in the U.S. legally, as well as “cooperate and comply” with federal officers in the enforcement of immigration
- HB 200, which also mandates law enforcement to work with federal immigration officers, but makes undocumented status a state crime
- HB 544, which would make it a felony to prevent or obstruct any law enforcement during immigration enforcement
People against the bills claim it would lead to many living in fear and refusing to get an education or health care.
Kulbaga said they are already seeing a decrease in students coming to campus out of the fear of being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She said that if these bills become law, they will continue to see a decrease, and it may even lead some foreign faculty to hide.
Nurses like Kylee Ham, president of the UC chapter of the Registered Nurses Association (RNA), said it will be the same case for hospitals.
"It would completely disrupt our work, absolutely. It puts us in a really, really terrible ethical predicament, and also it prevents patients from seeking care," said Ham, who is also an ER nurse at UC Medical Center.
State Rep. Adam Mathews, a Warren County Republican, said he supports the package's overall goal of having Ohioans cooperate with federal immigration officers.
"Ohio has generally been safe, and they have been working with the federal government already," Mathews said. "We look at places like Minnesota, where you had the local governments working against the federal immigration authorities, and that is where the violence has happened."
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I asked Mathews for his response to the concerns that people wouldn’t attend school or get medical care if these bills were to pass.
"I agree comprehensively and in principle that we need to be enforcing our immigration laws, but we also want to make sure people get their emergency room care and continue to live their good law-abiding lives," Mathews said in response.
Mathews said he believes that the bills will be amended before their passage, but opponents are encouraging Ohioans to call their representatives and tell them to reject the package.
Democrats have also introduced their own bill package in response to the "Cooperation Package" called the “Safeguard Package,” which includes 8 bills.
