Feds pay Ohio city to report arrests of undocumenteds

EAST CLEVELAND, OHIO — The city of East Cleveland agreed to report arrests of undocumented immigrants to federal authorities when it applied for Justice Department grant money that will be used to hire two new police officers, officials said.

The Justice Department on Monday awarded more than $425,000 in grant money to the city, which requested the funding to combat street gangs. The city will use the money, from the Community Oriented Policing Services’ Hiring Program, to pay 75 percent of two fulltime police officers’ salaries and benefits for three years.

The Justice Department gave special consideration to grant applicants who agreed to report undocumented immigrants in police custody and let federal immigration agents into local jails. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said roughly 80 percent of the 179 police departments that received funding agreed to cooperate with federal immigrant agents.

Opponents have argued that cities and states are not required to enforce federal immigration laws, and that local enforcement of immigration laws can create a distrust of police within communities.

East Cleveland officials said Tuesday that the city is among that 80 percent of grant recipients that agreed to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Mayor Brandon King “supports following the laws of the U.S. and the state” if doing so allows the city to “put more police officers on the street,” his chief of staff said in a statement to cleveland.com.

King added that he does not believe East Cleveland has an “immigration issue,” his chief of staff said in the statement.

East Cleveland police Chief Michael Cardilli was out of the office Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. But his executive assistant, Vanessa Veal, said she cannot recall any prior instances of the police department reporting the arrest of an undocumented immigrant to federal authorities.

The police department does keep arrest records that show when a detainee is an undocumented immigrant, and those records are shared with the FBI, Veal said.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on the East Cleveland grant.

The city is expected to keep the two new police officers on staff for at least four years — or at least a year after the grant money dries up, Veal said. The cash-strapped city could apply for additional grant money if it does not have the budget to keep the officers, she said.

The East Cleveland Police Department used COPS grants to hire police officers in each of the last two years.