The law outweighs compassion, sheriff says of mother detained by ICE

Sheriff Jones: ‘I have a lot of people in my jail that are separated from their families.’
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said no one who has committed a crime should receive “special treatment” just because they would be separated from their family.

The sheriff said Maribel Trujillo Diaz, the Fairfield Mexican mother of four taken into custody Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is no different.

“I have a lot of people in my jail that are separated from their families,” Jones said. “It’s still a crime to be here illegally.”

The Butler County Jail has a contract to hold federal prisoners.

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Trujillo, who was granted a year-long work permit in July, was detained Wednesday by federal immigration agents near her Fairfield home. She is a mother of four children — ages 3 to 14 — who were all born in America.

Trujillo has lived in the U.S. since 2002 and was put on the radar of immigration officials after an immigration raid at Koch Foods, where she was employed.

Early this morning, Trujillo was moved from the Butler County Jail to the Morrow County Correctional Facility, a location from which detainees in the country illegally are flown back to Mexico, according to the pastor of a Hamilton church she attends.

The sheriff said he does “have compassion” for Trujillo, but he also has compassion for others separated from their families that are in jail or are serving overseas in the military.

“If she would have come here legally, none of this would have happened,” Jones said.

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