An ICE leader has been locked up in the same jail where he’d sent ICE prisoners after he allegedly strangled his girlfriend earlier this month.
Cincinnati Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervisor Samuel Saxon was tossed into Hamilton County Jail on a $400,000 bond last week on domestic violence charges stemming from a Dec. 5 incident.
Saxon, 47, now also faces federal charges and has been transferred into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to inmate records for the Butler County Jail, Ohio’s largest facility housing ICE prisoners.
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance said Saxon is now behind bars in “the most notorious ICE prison in Ohio.”
The detention center has also been the site of protests against the Trump administration’s tactics in the ongoing immigration crackdown. In June, 200 people angrily demanded the release of a 19-year-old who was detained after a scheduled immigration appointment.
Saxon, meanwhile, is accused of lying to federal investigators who were looking into the domestic violence allegations against him. He faces up to five years behind bars if convicted of making false statements.
The Daily Beast has asked DHS to comment on the matter.
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance noted that this may be the first time an ICE agent has been incarcerated in his own ICE jail.
The alliance’s director, Lynn Tramonte, added: “With the arrest of Cincinnati ICE agent Samuel Saxon, we have some questions that need to be asked of ICE. Everyone wants to to live in safe homes and communities. We’ve noticed ICE demonizing immigrants who haven’t committed crimes, while failing to police their own ranks. This is not the first ICE agent arrested for gender-based crimes in recent memory.”
On the domestic charge, Saxon, according to a witness, had placed his partner in a chokehold in the hallway of their apartment. Police reported seeing bruises on her neck and said officers had been called out to the apartment 22 times in a year-and-a-half period.
Saxon, officially an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations official, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He reportedly started seeing the victim when she was 18 and he was in his 40s.
The woman suffered a broken nose in 2018 and a broken pelvis in April due to attacks linked to Saxon, CityBeat reported. She has declined to cooperate with authorities on the recent charges, and the case rests on the witness testimony, Fox 19 reported.
A two-decade veteran of the department, Saxon received an award in 2016 for long-term contributions to the agency, according to a news release.
Saxon, who learned that ICE had suspended him while he was in custody, is due to appear in court again on Dec. 22.
The Daily Beast previously reported that DHS had set off alarms by bypassing normal procedures to rush recruits through training, including some with pending charges.
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