ICE Launches Operation Buckeye in Ohio, Targeting Afghan Refugees Who Fled Taliban and Entered Through Legal CBP One Program

Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched “Operation Buckeye” on December 16, 2025, in Columbus and throughout Ohio, officially characterizing the enforcement action as targeting “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens” with convictions for felony drug possession, assault, DUIs, and other crimes, but in practice conducting sweeping arrests of Afghan refugees who legally entered the United States through the CBP One program after fleeing Taliban persecution—including former Afghan military translators who worked with U.S. forces and who now face deportation back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where they face likely execution. The operation represents a particularly egregious betrayal of legal immigration pathways, with ICE summoning Afghan individuals to routine immigration appointments and arresting them upon arrival despite their legal entry status, transforming what should be safe administrative processes into bait-and-switch traps that exploit immigrants’ compliance with legal requirements to facilitate deportation. Columbus city leaders condemned the federal enforcement operations as an “unwelcome intervention” in a city that has not requested assistance and reaffirmed Columbus’s policy of non-cooperation with ICE, while immigrant communities throughout central Ohio experienced widespread fear and confusion as reports of ICE detentions at gas stations, workplaces, and immigration offices spread through neighborhoods with substantial immigrant populations.

ICE announced Operation Buckeye in a December 20, 2025 news release describing the operation as enforcement targeting dangerous criminals with serious felony convictions, framing the arrests as public safety operations that remove violent offenders from Ohio communities. The release emphasized that those arrested had convictions for felony drug possession, assault, DUIs, and other crimes, using law enforcement rhetoric that portrays immigration enforcement as crime control and that justifies aggressive tactics as necessary protection for American communities. However, immigrant advocates, attorneys, and Columbus city officials documented a pattern of enforcement that extended far beyond targeting serious criminals to include individuals with no criminal records, individuals with minor administrative violations, and crucially, Afghan refugees who entered legally through the CBP One program and who were arrested during routine immigration compliance appointments despite following all legal procedures.

WOSU Public Media (NPR affiliate) reported that Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, Police Chief Elaine Bryant, City Attorney Zach Klein, and City Council President Shannon Hardin held a press conference on December 18, 2025, addressing reports of ICE operations throughout the city and reassuring immigrant residents that Columbus police would not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. Mayor Ginther stated that “Columbus is already safe” and “We have not asked for and do not need this unwelcome intervention,” directly challenging ICE’s characterization of the operation as necessary public safety enforcement and asserting that the federal presence was neither requested nor welcomed by local government. Ginther emphasized, “We understand that many of our neighbors may feel concerned for their safety. Please know that we stand with you and everyone who calls Columbus home,” explicitly extending city protection to immigrant residents regardless of status.

The mayor’s statement that “The federal officers operating in our city are not sharing their playbook with us. They have not informed us of where they will be, how long they will be here, or the tactics they will use” reveals that ICE conducted operations without coordinating with or informing local law enforcement, treating Columbus as hostile territory requiring covert operations rather than as a partner jurisdiction. This lack of coordination prevents local police from managing community impacts, responding to concerns about civil rights violations, or ensuring that ICE operations do not interfere with local law enforcement priorities. The unilateral federal operations override local democratic governance, imposing enforcement approaches that elected Columbus officials explicitly reject but cannot prevent.

Police Chief Elaine Bryant confirmed that ICE was increasing operations in Columbus but stressed that Columbus Police Department was not assisting the federal agency, stating that Columbus police officers are not involved in ICE operations and that residents will not be investigated based solely on immigration status but only if there is evidence of criminal activity. Bryant’s clarification attempts to maintain trust between immigrant communities and local police, recognizing that community cooperation with law enforcement depends on immigrants believing they can report crimes, provide witness testimony, and seek police assistance without triggering immigration consequences. The ICE operations threaten to destroy this trust, making immigrant communities less safe as residents avoid police contact even when they are crime victims.

ABC6 Columbus documented witness accounts of ICE enforcement throughout central Ohio, including a Northgate business owner who reported observing employees being detained by ICE at a gas station on Cleveland Avenue. The public nature of these detentions—occurring at gas stations and other commercial locations where community members witness the arrests—creates terror that extends far beyond the individuals actually detained. When immigrants see federal agents conducting arrests at routine locations like gas stations, the message is clear: ICE can arrest anyone, anywhere, at any time, regardless of whether they are engaged in criminal activity. This pervasive threat of detention transforms everyday activities like pumping gas into potential encounters with immigration enforcement, forcing immigrants to live in constant fear.

Immigration attorney Inna Simakovsky expressed alarm about the scope and character of the enforcement operations, stating: “If you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time and you are pumping gas and you are not a white man, you could be targeted.” This blunt assessment identifies the racial profiling inherent in ICE operations that rely on agents’ assumptions about who “looks” like an immigrant subject to detention. When agents target individuals at gas stations without specific evidence of removability, they necessarily rely on racial appearance, accent, or other characteristics associated with immigrant status—classic racial profiling that subjects people of color, particularly those who appear Latino, Middle Eastern, African, or Asian, to detention risk that white individuals never face.

Simakovsky reported that her caseload multiplied significantly during the operation, with clients being detained during official immigration appointments and interviews despite following proper legal procedures. This pattern—arresting individuals who appear for scheduled immigration appointments—represents particularly insidious enforcement that exploits immigrants’ compliance with legal requirements to facilitate deportation. When immigrants cannot safely attend immigration appointments without risk of detention, they must choose between complying with legal obligations (and being arrested) or avoiding appointments (and being charged with failure to comply). This impossible choice destroys any meaningful legal process and reveals that immigration “procedures” function as traps rather than as pathways to legal status.

The particularly shocking dimension of Operation Buckeye involves the targeted arrest of Afghan refugees who entered the United States legally through the CBP One program after fleeing Taliban persecution following the Taliban’s 2021 seizure of control over Afghanistan. Multiple Afghan families in Columbus who entered through CBP One now face deportation despite their legal entry status. One Afghan man identified only as “J” was arrested after being summoned for an immigration appointment, despite having entered the country legally in 2024 through the CBP One program with his wife “A” and their two children after fleeing to Iran to escape Taliban rule. Refugee support advocate Brent Dutcher reported that Afghan CBP One migrants are being systematically summoned to immigration appointments and arrested in what appears to be a coordinated targeting effort against Afghan residents.

Another Afghan man had his work permit abruptly canceled, leaving him unable to feed his six children. This individual had worked as a translator for the American-backed Afghan government and was forced to flee when the Taliban took over, representing exactly the kind of Afghan ally whom the United States has moral and strategic obligations to protect. By revoking his work authorization and making him deportable, the administration betrays an individual who risked his life to assist U.S. military operations and who now faces likely execution if returned to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where he is known to have collaborated with American forces.

The targeting of Afghan refugees who entered through CBP One—a legal immigration pathway that the U.S. government established and that requires applicants to present themselves at ports of entry, undergo security screening, and follow administrative procedures—represents a profound betrayal of legal immigration systems. These individuals did everything the United States government instructed them to do: they fled persecution, they sought protection through official channels, they presented themselves for inspection rather than entering unlawfully, they underwent vetting, they complied with all requirements, and they appeared for all scheduled immigration appointments. In exchange for this compliance, ICE is now arresting them at those very appointments and initiating deportation proceedings that will return them to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where they face persecution and likely death.

The timing of intensified enforcement against Afghan refugees appears directly connected to a November 2025 shooting in Washington, D.C., in which a man from Afghanistan shot two National Guard members, killing one. The Trump administration’s response to this single incident by a single individual has been to target the entire Afghan refugee community for detention and deportation, implementing collective punishment that holds all Afghan immigrants responsible for one person’s criminal act. This guilt-by-association approach violates fundamental principles of individual responsibility and equal protection, treating Afghan refugees as a suspect class whose presence in the United States can no longer be tolerated regardless of their individual circumstances, legal status, or contributions.

For context, the United States has long recognized obligations to Afghan individuals who assisted U.S. military operations during the two-decade war in Afghanistan, creating Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programs specifically to provide refuge for Afghan translators, interpreters, fixers, and others who faced Taliban retaliation for their collaboration with American forces. When the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021 following chaotic U.S. withdrawal, tens of thousands of Afghans fled the country, with many eventually reaching the United States through various legal pathways including SIV programs, refugee resettlement, humanitarian parole, and the CBP One appointment system. These Afghans trusted American promises of protection in exchange for their assistance during the war, often risking their lives and their families’ safety to support U.S. operations. The current deportation campaign betrays these promises, demonstrating that American commitments to protect allies are worthless when political considerations make refugee populations unpopular.

The consequences of deporting Afghans back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan are severe and predictable: individuals known to have worked with American forces, to have fled Taliban rule, or to have sought refuge in the West face imprisonment, torture, and execution. The Taliban maintains lists of individuals who collaborated with the previous government or with Western forces, and systematically targets these individuals for retaliation. Deporting Afghan refugees to these conditions violates international refugee law principles of non-refoulement—the prohibition on returning individuals to countries where they face persecution or threats to life and freedom. The United States is party to international treaties including the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees that obligate non-refoulement, making deportations of Afghans to Taliban-controlled territory potential violations of international legal obligations.

ICE officially confirmed two specific arrests during Operation Buckeye, providing names and photographs of individuals with criminal convictions: Abdirisaq Hassan Mohamed from Somalia with convictions for felony drug possession, criminal trespass, theft of services, failure to disperse, and unlawful drug trafficking; and Wilmar Lozano-Alcantara from El Salvador with convictions for felony controlled substance possession, felony robbery, and felony probation violation. Both individuals had final removal orders, meaning they had exhausted immigration appeals and were subject to deportation under existing orders. ICE’s selective public identification of these two individuals with serious criminal records serves propaganda purposes, providing specific examples of dangerous criminals being removed that can be featured in media coverage while obscuring that the operation simultaneously targeted individuals with no criminal records, including Afghan refugees who entered legally and who committed no violations.

The discrepancy between official ICE communications emphasizing criminal arrests and on-the-ground reports of Afghan refugees, workplace detentions, and gas station arrests reveals the systematic dishonesty in ICE public messaging. By providing photographs and criminal histories of two convicted felons while remaining silent about arrests of legal entrants attending immigration appointments, ICE creates misleading public impression that enforcement exclusively targets dangerous criminals when in fact the operation casts a far wider net. This selective transparency allows ICE to claim credit for removing criminals while conducting parallel enforcement against non-criminals whose arrests would generate less favorable public reaction if prominently disclosed.

Business owners in immigrant communities expressed devastation and incomprehension at the enforcement operations. One business owner stated regarding detained employees: “These people are good, innocent people. The only crime they committed in this country is come to this country to work.” This characterization identifies the fundamental injustice of treating immigration violations—civil administrative matters—as crimes justifying detention, separation from families, and deportation to dangerous conditions. The vast majority of individuals detained during Operation Buckeye committed no criminal offenses beyond immigration-related violations, yet are subjected to enforcement mechanisms including detention without bail, expedited proceedings without adequate legal representation, and deportation to countries they fled to escape persecution or violence.

The “ICE Out” map documented through crowd-sourced reports and social media showed photographs and videos of apparent enforcement actions throughout Columbus, though many reported incidents could not be immediately confirmed. This community documentation serves crucial accountability functions, creating public records of ICE operations that the agency does not disclose and enabling immigrant rights organizations to track enforcement patterns, identify civil rights violations, and provide assistance to affected families. The fact that community members feel compelled to create grassroots surveillance networks to monitor federal law enforcement activities reveals the profound breakdown of trust and the recognition that official ICE communications cannot be relied upon for accurate information about enforcement operations.

Immigration attorney Simakovsky advised families to maintain emergency documentation including case numbers and birth certificates, recognizing that ICE operations create ongoing detention risks requiring families to prepare for sudden separation. This advice—that immigrant families must keep crucial documents readily accessible in case ICE arrests a family member without warning—describes a state of siege in which families cannot assume they will remain intact from day to day. The requirement to prepare for potential family separation reflects the reality that ICE operations can occur at any time in any location, transforming routine activities like working, shopping, or attending immigration appointments into potential triggers for detention and deportation.

Columbus Mayor Ginther reaffirmed the stance established in his 2017 executive order barring the use of city resources to enforce federal immigration policy, maintaining Columbus’s status as a city that does not collaborate with ICE despite federal pressure and criticism from immigration restrictionists. This sanctuary-city approach reflects democratic accountability to Columbus residents including large immigrant populations, recognition that immigrant community trust in local government and police serves public safety interests, and principled objection to immigration enforcement policies that city leadership views as unjust. The tension between local non-cooperation and aggressive federal enforcement creates unstable conditions where ICE operates unilaterally without local government knowledge or consent, conducting operations that local elected officials condemn but cannot prevent.

City Attorney Zach Klein and City Council President Shannon Hardin joined Mayor Ginther and Police Chief Bryant in the unified municipal response defending immigrant residents and refusing cooperation with ICE. This rare unanimity among executive and legislative branches of city government on immigration issues demonstrates the political consensus in Columbus that ICE operations harm the city and that protecting immigrant residents serves community interests. The coordinated response also serves strategic communication purposes, ensuring immigrant residents receive clear and consistent messaging that city government will not assist deportation efforts and that Columbus police can be trusted not to inquire about immigration status during routine law enforcement interactions.

The fear and confusion generated by Operation Buckeye extended far beyond the individuals actually detained. When immigrant communities witness ICE conducting arrests at gas stations, workplaces, and immigration offices, fear spreads throughout entire neighborhoods regardless of individuals’ specific immigration status or criminal records. Legal permanent residents, U.S. citizens of immigrant background, and individuals with pending immigration applications all experience heightened anxiety when ICE conducts visible enforcement operations, as the possibility of mistaken detention, racial profiling, or document challenges creates risks even for individuals with legal status. This community-wide terrorization represents a feature rather than a bug of aggressive enforcement operations: by creating pervasive fear, ICE induces “self-deportation” as families choose to leave rather than live under constant threat.

The operation occurred during the December holiday season, timing that may have been chosen to reduce public attention as media coverage focuses on year-end news and as congressional oversight is limited during recess. Conducting controversial enforcement operations during periods when oversight and public attention are reduced represents a deliberate strategy to minimize political accountability and to implement policies that might face greater resistance if conducted during periods of full governmental operation and media attention.

Operation Buckeye represents a microcosm of Trump administration immigration enforcement: official rhetoric emphasizing criminal enforcement masking broader targeting of non-criminals; exploitation of legal immigration pathways to facilitate deportation of individuals who trusted those pathways; betrayal of Afghan allies who risked their lives to assist American military operations; racial profiling driving enforcement decisions about whom to stop and detain; transformation of immigration appointments into arrest traps; and systematic terrorization of entire immigrant communities to induce fear and self-deportation regardless of legal status or criminal history.

For Afghan refugees watching the operation unfold, the message is devastating and clear: American promises of protection are worthless, legal immigration pathways are traps, compliance with legal requirements facilitates deportation, and the United States will abandon its allies when politically convenient regardless of moral obligations or strategic consequences. The betrayal of Afghan refugees who fled Taliban persecution and who entered through legal channels destroys any remaining credibility of U.S. commitments to protect those who assist American operations, potentially affecting future U.S. military operations that depend on local allies willing to trust American protection promises.

For Columbus’s broader immigrant communities—including substantial Somali, Latino, and Asian populations—Operation Buckeye demonstrates that ICE can and will conduct aggressive enforcement operations regardless of local government opposition, that no location is safe from detention risk, that attending immigration appointments can result in arrest rather than case processing, and that the federal government views immigrant communities as threats requiring suppression rather than as community members deserving protection and equal treatment under law.

As Operation Buckeye continued into late December 2025 and potentially beyond, Columbus’s immigrant communities remained in a state of fear and uncertainty, with families afraid to leave homes for routine activities, workers afraid to attend jobs where they might encounter ICE, parents afraid to send children to school through neighborhoods where ICE might be operating, and individuals afraid to attend immigration appointments that should represent steps toward legal status but that now represent potential traps leading to detention and deportation. The operation’s long-term impacts on community trust, public safety, economic activity, and civic participation will persist long after ICE agents complete the named operation and move to other enforcement priorities, illustrating how aggressive immigration enforcement damages entire communities far beyond the individuals actually deported.