‘Perverse’ Incentives: How Local Governments Might Cash In on Trump’s Migrant Detention

Shannon Heffernan, The Marshall Project, Jan. 4, 2025

"Just before the 2024 presidential election, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said that if former President Donald Trump won, he would get back into the “deportation business.” Now, the suburban Ohio sheriff has set aside 250 to 300 beds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees — around a third of Butler County Jail's capacity, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, and a boon to the county’s revenue. Overwhelming evidence shows immigrants are less likely to commit crime than people born in the U.S. Sheriff Jones himself concedes that immigrants are not more prone to crime. However, he has echoed Trump’s immigration rhetoric and vowed to do his part to enforce Trump’s plans to deport undocumented immigrants. “I believe in American citizens first. People that have blood and sweat into this country have fought for it, them first. These other countries aren't first. We are,” Jones told WLWT. The detention part of the “deportation business” could be a profitable one for Butler County. In 2024, the county made over $6.7 million renting jail beds to other local and federal government agencies, including the U.S. Marshals and the Bureau of Prisons. Even before Trump’s re-election, Butler County budgeted for an increase in that revenue to an estimated $8.5 million in 2025, according to the Journal-News. A county commissioner offered support for the sheriff’s plans to rent more beds to ICE: “Obviously, the more prisoners we have, the more revenue it produces,” Commissioner Don Dixon said. ..."