La Grange, KY — Solidarity Project, Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice (LSURJ), Indivisible Louisville, 50501, KY Alliance, and Kentucky Citizens for Democracy (KCfD) will join educators, students, families, and community members for a public demonstration on Saturday, April 25, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Oldham County Detention Center in La Grange.
The action is part of the national Communities Not Cages Day of Action, opposing immigration detention expansion nationwide.
The protest comes as a JCPS high school senior is reported by community advocates to be held at the facility just weeks before graduation, putting a local face on the human cost of Oldham County’s partnership with ICE.
Why we are gathering
This is not just policy. It is a moral issue.
A county jail should not help separate families, detain students, and generate revenue by incarcerating immigrants. Oldham County does not need ICE detainees to keep the jail operating, yet it has chosen to participate in a system that pays more when more people are locked up.
Kentucky records show three county jails billed ICE more than $10.5 million in 2025 at roughly $88 per detainee per day. Oldham County Fiscal Court minutes show the detention center projected more than $8.1 million in FY26 revenue overall.
That structure creates a perverse incentive. Oldham County’s adopted FY26 budget lists Jailer Jeff Tindall’s salary at $151,350 after a significant raise that fiscal year, which public budget documents indicate is among the highest salaries for county officials. No public official should financially benefit from a detention model built on filling beds and separating families.
The facts in Kentucky
The League of Women Voters of Kentucky reported that as of February 5, 2026, Kentucky county jails held an average daily population of 1,041 ICE detainees, including 128 people at Oldham County Detention Center. That population had more than doubled in five months.
The League also found that 72% of ICE detainees were classified as non-criminal, meaning most were not identified by ICE as having criminal histories. It further reported that some jails do not fully include ICE detainees in public inmate listings, limiting transparency and making it harder for families and attorneys to locate people.
Due process is failing
Reuters reported detained immigrants have filed more than 20,200 federal lawsuits seeking release, and judges have ruled in at least 4,421 cases that ICE was holding people unlawfully. That is not a functioning justice system. That is a system forcing the courts to repeatedly correct illegal detention.
Americans are being harmed too
Abusive immigration enforcement does not stop neatly at undocumented people. A ProPublica investigation found more than 170 U.S. citizens were held against their will by immigration agents during the first nine months of the current administration, including nearly 20 children.
Reuters reported at least 17 immigrants died in ICE custody from January through early April 2026, after 31 deaths in 2025, the highest total in two decades. Reuters further reported that federal immigration enforcement has turned deadly outside detention facilities. On New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles, an off-duty ICE agent fatally shot Keith Porter, while federal agents also killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti in separate Minnesota enforcement operations that same January.
When people are targeted based on appearance, language, or assumption, everyone’s liberty becomes less secure.
The detention of a local student makes clear that immigration detention is not a distant national issue. It is happening here in Kentucky — to students, classmates, coworkers, and neighbors.
Event Goals
Participants will gather to:
- Oppose ICE detention expansion and the criminalization of immigration
- Stand with detained immigrants and impacted families
- Demand due process and humane treatment for all people
- Call on elected officials to reject abusive detention policies
- Show Kentucky will not stay silent while families are torn apart
Event Information
What: Demonstration at Oldham County Detention Center
When: Saturday, April 25 | 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Where: Oldham County Detention Center, La Grange, Kentucky
Who: Solidarity Project, KCfD, LSURJ, Indivisible Louisville, 50501, KY Alliance, educators, students, and community members. Attendees are encouraged to bring signs, water, and their voices.
--30--
Via press release
Comments
