Bad Immigration Bills in Columbus
September 12, 2025
By Samantha Searls, Program Director
While much attention has been focused on our federal government’s attacks on peaceful immigrant families, state lawmakers in Columbus have been quietly introducing their own catastrophic legislation.
We’ve previously written about Ohio HB 26, a bill that would force local law enforcement to round up immigrants. We’ve also told you about Ohio HB 42, which would require schools and other entities to report on the immigration status of the children and families they serve, putting them in harm’s way. Unfortunately, more bad bills are coming.
Ohio SB 172
The most concerning bill is now Ohio SB 172, a racial profiling bill. This bill would allow law enforcement to detain anyone they believe is an immigrant, even without a warrant. With this bill, law enforcement would also be capable of detaining anyone within a public office, this includes places like public schools, libraries, and courthouses.
This bill heavily relies on law enforcement to racially profile those within our communities, even those with granted status or birthright citizenship. As long as someone looks like whatever law enforcement deems an immigrant – they could be detained.
SB 172 passed through the Ohio Senate in June 2025. It now moves to the Ohio House.
Ohio HB 1 / Ohio SB 88
Ohio SB 88 caught headlines this spring after hundreds of people packed into a hearing room to share their opposition to restricting property ownership for certain groups of immigrants, specifically people from China. In the United States, everyone should have the same right to own property — regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or any other trait. The equal right to owning property must be non-negotiable in the U.S. in 2025. We have to learn from the mistakes of our past. We can’t support laws that treat people differently based on their race or country of origin.
SB 88 has had 4 hearings and could be voted out of committee at any moment. HB 1 has had one hearing.
Ohio HB 200
As many know, living in the United States without an immigration status is not a criminal infraction. Legislators at the Statehouse want to change that. Ohio HB 200 would not only force local law enforcement into immigration work, but would charge undocumented immigrants with a felony for being present in Ohio. This overt criminalization of innocent people will then be used to detain and deport people en masse and leave them with a major criminal record that could derail any future applications to enter the United States.
The vilification, criminalization, and systematic traps set to disappear valued members of our community has got to end. Subscribe to our email list for the latest calls to action and reach out to your state legislators to let them know that you support immigrants!