Latest news with #KristinaRoegner
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
An Ohio court passed rules barring ICE arrests. A state Senator wants to scrap them
Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson. Photo from the Ohio Senate. In March, Franklin County, Ohio judges passed a pair of local rules barring immigration arrests at the county courthouse. A new measure in the state Senate aims to invalidate such restrictions statewide. After President Trump took office, his administration quickly issued guidance giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement the greenlight to make arrests in or near courthouses. In the months since, there have been several highly publicized arrests at courthouses around the country. In one instance FBI agents even arrested a Wisconsin judge, alleging she obstructed an immigration arrest. Judge Hannah Dugan has filed a motion in federal court to have her charges dismissed. Franklin County's rules prohibit any civil arrest without a judicial warrant in the courthouse itself or on the sidewalk and entryways. ICE agents typically use an administrative warrant signed by an agency official rather than a judge. The rules also prohibit the execution of a judicial warrant in a courtroom unless the judge agrees to allow it in writing, and restricts court staff from requesting or sharing information about a person's immigration status. In a press release, the court emphasized its responsibility to ensure due process for the public at large. 'That mission is jeopardized when victims, witnesses, and defendants are afraid to come to the courthouse to testify and participate in ongoing cases, fearing civil arrest and deportation from courthouse grounds,' the release stated. People deciding not to show up, the court argued, undermines the fairness of trials 'for citizens and non-citizens alike.' State Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, believes the court overstepped its authority. Her proposal 'specifies that persons who are unlawfully present in the United States are not privileged from arrest.' State law already bars civil, but not criminal, arrest in several circumstances. You can't get arrested going to the polls on Election Day, on the Fourth of July, on Sundays generally, or at a place of worship on the traditional day of worship. Huge majorities support due process for migrants. They haven't always gotten it in Ohio The same privileges apply to court. The parties to a case, witnesses, jurors, and court officials, can't be arrested for civil violations at, or on the way to and from court — a point cited in the local rules. But Roegner's proposal would remove those privileges for undocumented individuals, and she said it was 'drafted in response' to Franklin County's changes. 'Senate Bill 172 would provide much needed support for federal immigration authorities,' she argued, 'by requiring state and local public offices and public officials to allow the arrest or detention of any person who is suspected of being in the United States illegally for that person's removal or for other immigration related purposes.' The proposal also prohibits any public office in Ohio from enforcing rules that bar cooperation with immigration authorities. State Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, quipped that it's 'amazing thing that we would even have to do this.' But the scope of Roegner's proposal gave others pause, particularly in the context of the Trump administration's recent track record with immigration enforcement. Up until the first Trump administration, immigration authorities generally avoided places like courts, schools, hospitals and churches. But in 2018, an ICE directive laid out a policy that increased courthouse arrests substantially. Trump campaigned for his second term promising mass deportations, and his administration has tried to fast-track those removals at the expense of due process. Last week a federal judge in Boston ruled a deportation flight to South Sudan violated his previous court order. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the administration could not deport a group of more than 170 Venezuelans with just 24 hours' notice. In its ruling, the court pointed to a different, highly publicized case in which Kilmar Abrego Garcia was accidentally deported to El Salvador. Trump administration contends U.S. courts can't rule on Kilmar Abrego Garcia 'Had the detainees been removed from the United States to the custody of a foreign sovereign,' the majority wrote, 'the government may have argued, as it has previously argued, that no U.S. court had jurisdiction to order relief.' State Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, said he understood Roegner's concern about illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. But he expressed doubts about giving free rein to officers seeking someone only suspected of being in the U.S. unlawfully. 'With some of the stories that have come out about immigrants who have been wrongfully detained or even wrongfully renditioned out of the country, I was just curious what your thoughts are on protections for legal residents — legal immigrants — who may feel concerned that they could be wrongfully targeted in this?' he asked. Roegner said the U.S. is a country of immigrants and pointed to her own mother immigrating to the country from Finland. But she insisted 'we're also a country of laws,' and if someone is here legally 'they would really have nothing to fear.' 'So yeah, will mistakes happen? Probably, yes, they happen all the time,' Roegner said. 'But they can be cleared. They can say, 'yep, no, I'm a legal immigrant, and here's my paperwork,' and they can prove that they're here rightfully.' Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Washington Post
13-02-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Veteran state lawmaker Kristina Roegner launches 2026 bid for Ohio treasurer
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican Ohio Sen. Kristina Roegner, a veteran state lawmaker with fiscal oversight experience and a background in finance, announced Thursday that she is running for state treasurer. Roegner, 56, of Hudson in northeast Ohio, is just finishing up 14 years in the Ohio Legislature — four terms in the Ohio House and two terms in the Ohio Senate — where she said she has focused on the state's regulatory and occupational licensure systems, financial matters, tax cuts and government efficiency.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More than 800 people submit testimony against Ohio's massive higher education overhaul bill
On the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for the Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.) Hundreds of college students, university faculty and concerned citizens submitted testimony against a controversial bill that would overhaul higher education for Ohio's public universities, saying it will degrade higher ed in Ohio and make people leave the state. More than 200 people came to the Ohio Statehouse to testify during Tuesday's Ohio Senate Higher Education Committee meeting and more than 830 people submitted testimony. Senate Bill 1 would ban diversity and inclusion efforts, prevent faculty from striking, set rules around classroom discussion, put diversity scholarships at risk, shorten university board of trustees terms from nine years down to six years, and require students take an American history course, among other things. Regarding classroom discussion, it would set rules around topics involving 'controversial beliefs' such as climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A few amendments were adopted to S.B. 1 that clarified some aspects of the bill. 'The bill's policies regarding DEI and intellectual diversity do not prohibit faculty or students from classroom instruction, discussion, or debate,' said Senate Higher Education Committee Chair State Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson. Many who testified against the bill warned university faculty and college students would leave Ohio if S.B 1 passes. 'Had Senate Bill 1 been in effect when I was choosing the appropriate higher education route for myself, leaving the state of Ohio would have been priority one,' said Sabrina Estevez, a second-year student at Ohio State University. 'The merit of a degree from the state of Ohio is significantly eroded if this bill passes.' Tara Godwin moved to Columbus from Salt Lake City, Utah to continue her education at Ohio State. 'If Senate Bill 1 had passed before I decided to attend OSU, I would not have decided to move my family to Ohio,' Godwin, a Ph.D. history student said. 'Senate Bill 1 destroys the ability of faculty to determine how to best teach the content of courses in which they are experts.' Audrey Ansel, a junior at Ohio University who works at the university's Pride Center, said students like her would look outside Ohio to continue their education. 'Thousands of students will take their unique perspectives, experiences, and skills to other states where they see their freedoms being truly protected,' she said. 'On a surface level, there will be a decline in enrollment and therefore a decline in revenue. But the real loss will be suffered in classrooms where diversity has somehow become the villain.' The potential effects of the diversity and inclusion ban came up repeatedly during testimony. 'S.B. 1 does not protect free speech — it censors it,' said Brielle Shorter, a junior at Ohio State University. 'Silencing discussions on racism does not end racism,' she said. 'Banning DEI programs does not erase inequality. It only ensures that students like me have to fight even harder just to exist in spaces that were never meant for us.' Bobby McAlpine, Ohio State's undergraduate student body president, discussed the results of a campus survey where more than 80% of the 1,574 student respondents said Ohio State's diversity and inclusion initiatives were meaningful in some way. 'A resounding 46% of respondents said that DEI at Ohio State was extremely meaningful to their college experience,' McAlpine said. Justin Robinson, Ohio State's undergraduate student body vice president, read a letter from student body leaders from Ohio State, Bowling Green State University, John Carroll University, Kent State University, University of Dayton, University of Akron, Denison University, and Case Western Reserve University. 'If passed, this bill would strip institutions of the ability to govern themselves, limit the free exchange of ideas, silence conversations on critical social and historical issues, and impose top-down ideological control over faculty, staff, and students,' Robinson said. 'This bill fundamentally undermines the mission of higher education: to create an environment in which students can engage in free thought, challenge perspectives, and grow into informed, engaged citizens.' S.B. 1 does not contain a definition of DEI, noted Gary Daniels, an ACLU of Ohio lobbyist. 'Whether by design or oversight, the end result is the same that is with almost nothing to limit anyone or everyone's interpretation of DEI it means everything is on the table for banishment,' Daniels said. David Jackson, who spoke on behalf of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors, discussed seven reasons why he opposes the bill — ranging from S.B. 1's impact on tenure to how it would limit classroom discussions to the elimination of diversity and inclusion initiatives. 'It's a union-busting bill,' Jackson said. 'It would prohibit faculty unions from bargaining over fundamental terms and conditions of employment and also would ban the right to withhold labor due to unfair treatment.' S.B. 1 would also add more than 100 mandates for public universities, Jackson said. 'The cost to comply with all of the mandates has been projected in the millions,' he said. 'These are costs that students will end up bearing.' Jill Galvan, an Ohio State faculty member, talked about how S.B. 1 would devastate Ohio's workforce and drive students and faculty out of Ohio. 'This would underprepare students for a competitive workforce, which requires this level of critical thinking and knowledge-building,' she said. 'If colleges can't attract good faculty, that puts those institutions themselves in jeopardy. … If colleges fail, that's a recipe for communities that take a turn for the worse. State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, introduced S.B. 1, which lawmakers said they are attempting to fast-track. The bill is up for a possible committee vote Wednesday morning. If SB 1 passes out of committee, it could go to the full Ohio Senate Wednesday afternoon. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
