Ohio Senate Attack Ad Falsely Claims Columbus Released Illegal Immigrant Criminals

A political attack ad criticizing U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s voting record on immigration made several false claims about law enforcement in Columbus.

The One Nation PAC spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to air the ad on Google online and various streaming services such as Hulu between late August and early September. The Republican political action committee is not affiliated with the campaign of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, but did make ad buys in several key states to attack Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate.

This attack ad begins by stamping the words “Sanctuary Cities” on the Columbus skyline. The ad then lists the names of three undocumented immigrants who claim they committed crimes and claim that Columbus officials released them onto the streets of Ohio after they committed crimes.

WOSU verified this claim using information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Franklin County court records and found it to be false. However, the ad’s claim that Columbus is a sanctuary city is largely true.

The three immigrants on the One Nation PAC lists were all sent through the Franklin County courthouse and later deported after receiving due process.

The ad lists three names of undocumented immigrants who, it says, committed crimes in Ohio and were later released. Those names are Mexican citizens Edgar Soto-Moreno and Manuel Vazquez-Sanchez and Somali citizen Hajir Muhammud.

WOSU spoke with ICE and reviewed Franklin County court records, which revealed that all three suspects went through normal criminal proceedings and were later deported after receiving due process.

Soto-Moreno was charged with possession of cocaine and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony during a 2019 traffic stop in Italian Village. He was tried in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas and sentenced to two years in prison. ICE said Soto-Moreno was released in March 2022 and that he was transferred to ICE custody and deported to Mexico on April 8, 2022.

Vazquez-Sanchez was charged with domestic violence, assault and battery on a public servant in Franklin County Municipal Court. He pleaded guilty to amended charges and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. Shortly after his release, ICE said he was transferred to ICE custody following the resolution of his local charges. The ICE office in Detroit deported him to Mexico on January 14, 2022.

Muhammud was accused of failing to register as a sex offender for a prior crime. The charges against Muhammud were dropped, but a Cleveland court ordered Muhammad removed from the United States on March 19, 2020. That order was executed on September 17, 2020, shortly after the charges against Muhammud were dropped.

In all cases, the three were released on bail after their local court proceedings were concluded.

By all accounts, all three received their due process. They were not released back onto the streets of Ohio without consequences, as the ad claimed.

Where does the PAC get this information?

The PAC cited a 2020 ICE press release that said the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office refused to comply with the agency’s request to hold each man so they could all be deported. The press release said the sheriff refused to comply with each request.

ICE’s press release said it detains individuals who have been arrested on criminal charges and who ICE believes are likely to be undocumented immigrants. The detainment requires the other law enforcement agency to notify ICE prior to release and to hold the immigrant in custody for a short period of time so that ICE can apprehend that person in a safe and secure environment upon release from that agency’s custody.

Maria Durant, a spokeswoman for the Franklin County sheriff, said in a statement that no one with an outstanding criminal ICE detention has been released. She explained that ICE sometimes places noncriminal detentions on immigrants, and requires the county to hold them for up to 48 hours after the person is released by a court order.

“We are not an ICE detention center. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office only honors valid criminal warrants issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. ICE is notified in advance of the release of anyone on their list. ICE always has the option to seek a criminal warrant pursuant to federal law,” Durant said.

Durant said the sheriff’s office is acting within the powers and duties set forth in the Ohio Constitution and the Ohio Revised Code. She said detaining people who are subject only to a noncriminal warrant involves the Fourth Amendment.

It is unclear whether the PAC ever followed up on the four-year-old press release, issued in 2020, to check on the ultimate fate of the three men.

ICE told WOSU that the county sheriff did comply with a second detainer request for Vazquez-Sanchez, which was filed by the agency in December 2021. Vazquez-Sanchez was transferred to ICE custody after his prison sentence, and the ICE office in Detroit deported him to Mexico on Jan. 14, 2022.

The PAC did not say why they chose Soto-Moreno as an example, when ICE’s 2020 press release listed several other names they could have used instead. The PAC and ICE also put Soto-Moreno’s last name in the wrong order.

Moreno’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the PAC’s use of an immigrant who shares his name. Moreno himself is an immigrant from Colombia.

Columbus’s policy is in line with other cities that call themselves “sanctuary cities”

One of the central claims of the ad is that Columbus is a sanctuary city. That claim is largely true, as the city has policies that closely align with cities that claim that title.

In 2017, many cities began implementing policies designed to protect immigrants from being treated differently under the law than U.S. citizens. Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther told WOSU that he issued an executive order in 2017 that laid out four points:

• Columbus welcomes refugees and immigrants.
• The City will not use city offices or employees to detain people solely based on their immigration status.
• The city will offer immigrants and refugees the same services as all residents.
• And the city will vigorously oppose any effort to require the use of local tax dollars to enforce federal immigration policy.

“The city of Columbus is welcoming to everyone. The vast majority of our neighbors, including my wife, were not born here. They came to Columbus for work, for opportunity, for education, and they stayed and built a life,” Ginther said.

Ginther said Columbus police do not discriminate against people based on their immigration status, but they do hold people accountable when they commit a crime.

“If you commit crimes in the city of Columbus, you will be held accountable. And it doesn’t matter where you were born or what your status is,” Ginther said.

Durant said Columbus’ policies have no impact on the region’s decision-making.

“The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office does not consider issues related to the characterization of the City of Columbus as a sanctuary city in carrying out the office’s lawful duties,” Durant said.

Ginther said immigrants fuel the growth of the city and the region in positive and meaningful ways. He pointed to Columbus’ growth and said that without immigrants, Ohio’s population would likely have shrunk.

Ginther also pointed out that immigrants in Columbus and Franklin County paid $712 million in state and local taxes.

Ginther said he’s not surprised an ad like this would run, given the general election is coming up. He said he’s confident people in Ohio will recognize inaccurate ads.

““I believe that the people of this community and the voters of this campaign state are pretty smart. And they know when they see a misleading and inaccurate ad, especially when it’s being called out as false and misleading by independent members of the press and the media,” Ginther said.

The ad aired as tensions in Ohio over immigration were boiling over in Springfield. In that city, 40 miles from Columbus, the population of Haitian immigrants who arrive legally through refugee status has been embroiled in controversy.

Attacks against the Haitian population and bomb threats have hit the city due to false statements against the Haitian population, perpetuated by former President Donald Trump, Senator JD Vance of Ohio and Moreno.

Ginther said it is important for leaders to stand up to misleading advertising.

“Governor (Mike DeWine) said this is nonsense that is out there. And it is our job as Republicans and independents and Democrats to all speak the truth. And when there is misinformation and bad information, lies, nonsense. We need to collectively call it out for what it is and build support for safety, stability and security in our communities,” Ginther said.

Who is One Nation PAC?

One Nation PAC did not respond to questions about the false claims and declined an interview with WOSU. The PAC did provide the 2020 ICE press release and several news articles calling Columbus a sanctuary city.

The PAC did not respond when presented with court records showing that the three immigrants had faced due process before being sentenced to prison and later deported.

The ad ran for nine days, from Aug. 24 to Sept. 2, according to Google’s ad transparency website. The group made multiple purchases for the ad, spending about $100,000 on each purchase.

According to Google, the ad was viewed more than 20 million times.

The PAC also funded similar ads in other U.S. states that were considered competitive, such as Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin.

The dark money PAC is run by CEO Steven Law, who is also the president of U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund Super PAC. Unlike McConnell’s PAC, One Nation is a 501(c)4, also known as a dark money group. Nonprofits like this one don’t have to disclose their donors and don’t have to report to the Federal Elections Commission on things like fundraising and spending.

Brown’s campaign criticized Moreno in a statement over his opposition to a bipartisan border bill introduced in the Senate that Republicans opposed because of Trump’s opposition.

“While Bernie Moreno opposed the strongest border deal in decades, Sherrod voted for the deal. He has consistently supported the deportation of violent criminals and worked with Republicans to pass legislation to protect Ohioans from dangerous fentanyl by targeting drug cartels in Mexico,” the statement said.

The campaign accused Moreno and his allies of lying.

“Bernie Moreno and his allies are lying about (Brown) because they know he will always do what is right for Ohio, while Moreno only thinks of himself,” the statement said.

Moreno’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.