GRATIS — The police chief in a Preble County community and one of her officers are off the job.
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Village leaders are looking into their trip to Cincinnati last week, claiming to do child welfare checks for ICE.
There are still a lot of questions about what led the pair to drive more than 45 miles outside of their jurisdiction for this.
News Center 7 has talked to both officers to try to get more clarity about what happened here.
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Both cannot be at work right now as village leaders look into the trip they took from the police department in Gratis to three schools in Cincinnati.
Surveillance video stills the I-Team’s gotten a hold of show Gratis Police Chief Tonina Lamanna and one of her officers, Jeff Baylor, inside three Cincinnati Public Schools last Wednesday.
CPS said they claimed to be with ICE for what the district said the pair of officers claimed was a welfare check.
“I did not insinuate that I have a federal license or that I am there on behalf of any federal agency,” Baylor said.
News Center 7 talked to Baylor on the phone this weekend.
“She had all the talking, I stayed silent the whole day because again, that’s not my job,” he said.
CPS’ superintendent said the two officers did not interact with any students.
ICE sent the I-Team a statement:
“ICE does not target schools for enforcement actions. (Wednesday), a local law enforcement partner attempted to verify school enrollment and conduct welfare checks on children who arrived unaccompanied across the border. To be crystal clear this was not an ICE officer or an enforcement action.”
ICE then went on to say in the statement that it started a program with state and local partners in November:
“Aimed at protecting the 450,000 unaccompanied children (UAC) illegally smuggled over the border and placed with unvetted sponsors under the Biden administration.
This new law enforcement partnership, known as the UAC Safety Verification Initiative, represents ICE’s commitment to protect vulnerable children from sexual abuse and exploitation through collaboration with 287(g) law enforcement partners. The primary focus of this initiative is to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited."
ICE did not explicitly say in the statement whether what the Gratis officers were doing in Cincinnati last week was part of its UAC Safety Verification Initiative.
In an email conversation this weekend, News Center 7 asked Lamanna if what she was doing was part of that program.
“In additional [sic] to 287g which was signed in Oct and added the UAC in March,” she replied.
We also asked her if ICE directed her to do those welfare checks on unaccompanied children?
She answered: “Yes.”
News Center 7 asked if ICE gave her a list of unaccompanied children to check on.
She said “yes.”
We asked the Chief to provide copies of the UAC documents and that list. She replied:
“I have no way of getting documents to you at this time, but I do have them all and will release when advised I can.”
News Center 7 reached out ot ICE for a third time since Friday and asked questions related to Lamanna’s response.
We will update if we receive a response.
Gratis leaders said they’ll release more information “as appropriate” once their internal investigation is finished.
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