In Central Ohio, the federal government has unleashed untrained individuals from outside the community, who think they are unaccountable. But greater Columbus has responded in one voice. From the grassroots, which quickly organized itself in sophisticated ways, to civic leaders and faith-based institutions, Columbus is sending a unified message: Immigrants are welcome, ICE is not. Read on for quotes from leaders; more examples of ICE brutality; and resources keeping the community safe.

From disrupting ICE agents’ sleep, to documenting abuses and holding them to the Constitution, Central Ohio activists, lawyers, and organizers are mobilized around the clock. 

This is a documented (but incomplete) map of their abductions and the level of escalation throughout the week. Data is from ICEOUT.

The author, Dissent in Bloom, writes at Substack   Please consider supporting her work.  https://substack.com/@dissentinbloom

ICE is on the streets of Columbus arresting people. Supposedly Columbus officials and police are not cooperating with ICE, and if true, this is good news.

But you need to tell your friends and family about what else your “elected” Columbus City Council has recently done. It would make President Trump proud.

In the greatest power-grab in Columbus history your City Council took revenge on the residents of German Village over side-walk improvements by changing the City Charter. Wait a minute… Doesn’t the city already update the City Charter once every ten years with a panel of citizens who make recommendations?

Correct. That’s how the City Charter is supposed to be updated in a rational democracy, but not Columbus.

Anne Frank wrote about people stolen in the night and their homes left gutted, and that warning feels painfully current in a country that insists it learned its lessons. Today’s immigration raids leave a disturbingly similar wake, with homes abandoned mid-life, belongings scattered where they fell, and pets staring at the door as if their owners might still walk in and rescue them from the silence.

ICE does not simply take people; it leaves behind the wreckage of entire worlds. Toys stay where children last played, food spoils unfinished, cars idle in driveways, and phones, wallets, and IDs vanish into agency custody and often never return. ICE policy even requires officers to hold a person’s original identification documents, adding another blow to families already torn apart.

This investigation lays bare what happens to everything left behind when someone is taken. Cars are dragged to impound lots and auctioned before families can react, homes slide toward foreclosure or are snapped up by landlords, and pets are dropped at packed shelters with no one left to claim them.