Markwayne Mullin, who took over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier this year, will stage an event in Lebanon, Ohio today to highlight "how state and local law enforcement have helped ICE deliver a record-breaking number of arrests" last month.
The Sept. 4 event at the Warren County Sheriff's Office will include a roundtable discussion with officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local law enforcement agencies, according to a government media advisory.
In addition to Mullin, the roundtable will include Republican U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, Warren County Sheriff Barry Riley, Capt. Brian Payne with the Warren County jail and several other Homeland Security and ICE officials.
Mullin will also take questions from media,
the advisory said.
Discussion to center on ICE contracts
In addition to highlighting August arrests, the event will focus on "the importance of 287(g) partnerships," according to the advisory.
ICE has three models of that contract:
- Jail enforcement contracts allow local officers to identify and process people in their jails for immigration offenses.
- Task force contracts grant local officers limited immigration authority while performing their own duties or participating in an ICE task force.
- Warrant service officer contracts allow local officers to serve warrants on their inmates for immigration offenses.
Jails in Butler, Clermont and Warren counties in Ohio have such contracts. Butler also has a separate agreement to detain people for ICE.
In Northern Kentucky, Kenton County has a 287(g) and a contract to detain individuals for ICE. Boone and Campbell counties have contracts to hold individuals but no 287(g)s.
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said he couldn't attend due to a previous obligation. In Kenton County, jailer Marc Fields said he did not know about the Mullin event.
Greater Cincinnati jails detained about 6,000 immigrants in 2025, earlier Enquirer reporting found.
Elsewhere in Ohio, the police chief of Gratis, Ohio, was firedin May after she visited three Cincinnati schools, saying she was seeking information about students under her department's 287(g) agreement.
Who is Markwayne Mullin?
Mullin, 49, was confirmed as the ninth secretary of Homeland Security in March, after President Donald Trump announced that he'd fired Kristi Noemfrom that job. Noem had been under fire for her handling of deportation and alleged misuse of government funds.
A Republican, Mullin served as U.S. senator from Oklahoma, from 2023 to 2026, and U.S. representative for the state, for the ten years before that.
A member of the Cherokee Nation, Mullin ran his family's plumbing business before entering politics.
Who from ICE will attend the Cincinnati event?
ICE did not respond to questions about its participation in the event.
That agency is currently under the direction of acting director David Venturella, who took over from embattled acting director Todd Lyons in May.
Trump nominated a former Oklahoma state trooper named Lance Schroyer to the job in June, with Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul holding up a Senate confirmation hearing for Schroyer over questions about ICE violence in Minneapolis.
Why a Cincinnati venue?
The Mullin event comes with ICE activity in Springfield, Ohio, back in the spotlight.
The agency has ramped up immigration enforcement in that Clark County community since the government ended temporary protected status for about 350,000 Haitians in the United States on July 27.
Immigrant advocates in the county – which includes an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian residents – have called for ICE to stop requiring some Haitians to wear ankle monitors, devices that track their movements. They renewed that call after Pierre Ramas Bel, a 20-year-old college student from Springfield, was hit and killed by a truck on Interstate 70 on Aug. 31. Bel's family said the man took his own life after being bullied because of his ankle bracelet.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Homeland Security head in Greater Cincinnati to highlight ICE arrests
