According to data released by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) earlier in the week, 513 individuals with illegal or unknown immigration status were arrested last year, with most of the detainees hailing from Guatemala and Mexico.
Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett entered his department into the ICE 287(g) program in the spring of 2025 under the Jail Enforcement Model (JEM), allowing the law enforcement agency to identify and process individuals with criminal or pending criminal charges who have been arrested by state or local law enforcement agencies and lack U.S. citizenship.
A few months later, HCSO announced Sheriff Garrett was going to start providing the public with monthly updates on data related to illegal immigrant arrestees, and in September, the HCSO data showed that the number of illegal immigrants arrested by local law enforcement jumped 57% between July and August of 2025.
