CityBeat - Volume 29, Issue 4 - February 18-March 3, 2026

BY KATHERINE BARRIER

VOL. 29 | ISSUE 04

PHOTO BY JACOB DRABIK |

The Inside Beat: What do YOU want from CityBeat?

BY LACY STARLING

It’s been two months since CityBeat joined LINK Media, and in that time, we’ve made a number of important behind-thescenes improvements.

Our goal during that time was to stabilize operations, get everything back under one (local) roof, and ensure that systems and processes were in place so we could continue publishing without interruption.

There’s still some work to do (improving our events calendar experience, for instance) but for the most part, the behind-the-scenes work is done. Now, it’s time to work on the part you do see: our coverage.

The purpose of independent or “alternative” news organizations is to fill coverage gaps left by “traditional” media outlets. I put alternative and traditional in quotation marks because, honestly, the media landscape has changed so much in the past 20 years that I’m not sure those terms mean much anymore.

The major media corporations have gutted newsrooms, slashed coverage and no longer operate the robust reporting organizations they used to, and what used to be considered alternative media is now often the first source of information for communities, not the second or third.

In Northern Kentucky, our first publication,

LINK nky, was founded because none of the Cincinnati media outlets were covering NKY the way it deserved to be covered. Now with CityBeat, we’re going to work hard to identify and fill coverage gaps wherever they exist in Cincinnati (and boy, do they exist).

We’ve gotten some feedback from readers already, but in order to find out more, we’ve launched our first CityBeat reader survey. This short, anonymous survey gives our readers –new and old – a chance to tell us why they read

CityBeat, what we’re doing well and what we can do better in the future.

We take these responses very seriously, and the information we get from this survey will be used to inform our coverage moving forward.

So please, spend three minutes taking the survey and let us know what you’d like to see in the pages of our print edition and on the website. And if you have more to add, you can always email me at lacy@citybeat.com.

Roebling demonstrator found guilty of failure to disperse NEWS

BY NATHAN GRANGER

Ajury found Suzanne Bratt, one of 15 people arrested in a chaotic encounter with Covington Police last summer, guilty of failing to disperse, a misdemeanor, on Feb. 4.

Her trial lasted about six hours, including preliminary motions and jury selection, and the jury deliberated for about 15 minutes before rendering a unanimous guilty verdict. As a sentence, Bratt must pay a $250 fine but will not serve any jail time. With court costs, Bratt now owes the Kenton County District Court $394, which she must pay by May 8.

Bratt had also previously been charged with resisting arrest (a misdemeanor), but that charge was dropped the day before her trial.

Bratt’s trial marks the end of the court’s actions against people whose felony rioting charges were dropped at a hearing in July 2025. Three of the demonstrators — Brandon Hill, Logan Imber and Ameer Alkayali — had the probable cause for their felonies upheld, but their trial dates have not been set yet. Only one other person arrested on the bridge, then-CityBeat Photo Intern Lucas Griffith, has gone to trial. Everyone else was either granted time served in July or had their charges dropped later after taking deals with prosecutors.

“What this case boils down to is that protesting does not give you a right to not listen to lawful orders by the police,” said Holli Spaulding, who served as one of the prosecutors, during opening remarks. “It does not give you the right to block traffic.”

Much of the debate between the attorneys during the trial focused on whether or not Bratt had willingly disobeyed an order from Covington Police Officer Ross Woodward, seen in the video below brandishing a collapsible baton, or whether she was intending to comply but couldn’t due to her position on the bridge railing and the overall chaos of the environment.

Woodward had instructed Bratt to move off the railing where she was standing and onto the walkway. When she failed to comply, he pulled her from where she stood onto the bridge’s metal surface.

The evidence in Bratt’s trial consisted largely of police body cam footage, testimonials from Woodard, another officer, Robert Fain, and Bratt herself. The encounter was preceded by a vigil in Cincinnati put on by inter-faith group Ignite Peace for former Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Chaplain Ayman Soliman, who at the time was being detained in Butler County Jail following the revocation of his asylum status.

A portion of the vigil had split off from the main locale in Cincinnati and attempted to walk across the bridge, where they encountered police.

familiar with him, hence her attendance at the vigil. Bratt is active in her church, sings in the choir there and is currently the Interim Head of the University of Cincinnati’s Performing Arts Library. The courtroom benches were packed with people Bratt knew from both her professional and spiritual life.

During jury selection, most of the people said that they were not even aware of the July protest, and only one or two had even a cursory knowledge of Soliman. One man admitted that people standing on a bridge designed for vehicle traffic didn’t sit right with him, but he was not selected to be a juror in the end. Media and members of the public were not allowed to talk to or photograph jury members.

Questions about Bratt’s intentions quickly became a center point for the jury to deliberate.

“Suzanne did not intentionally refuse to disperse,” said Defense Attorney Daniel Schubert. “I want to plant that flag right here now because, honestly, that’s the question that you’ve [the jury] been brought here to answer based on the evidence. The reason she never made it to the walkway is because she got manhandled and tackled by Officer Woodward.”

The prosecutors’ case relied heavily on the police officers’ repeated orders to people to disperse and move off the road onto the sidewalk, which they argued justified Woodward’s actions. Fain was among the first to arrive on the scene and had issued multiple orders to disperse over his cruiser’s PA system.

Other officers had also arrived and issued similar orders verbally.

The defense argued that Bratt, as evidenced by her position off the road itself and onto bridge railing, indicated that she was in the process of moving away. They also pointed out that several other people had not immediately moved onto the sidewalk after being ordered to but were never tackled or arrested.

Bratt said during her testimony that she assumed the vigil had gotten a permit to be on the bridge when people began crossing. She described her position where she was standing as a “bottleneck,” given its proximity to the bridge’s triangular support beams and the

number of people in the crowd. Essentially, Bratt said, she had looked down to find a way to cross, but there wasn’t enough room for her to move onto the sidewalk.

“I’m trying to get to a rectangle, instead of a triangle,” Bratt said, “so I can get over it.”

Defense attorneys also pointed to a woman sticking her head out of a gap in the railing, arguing it blocked Bratt’s path, and the fact that another woman (dressed in a black shirt in the video below) standing next to Bratt had stated “I’m trying to; I can’t” when instructed to get onto the sidewalk as evidence of the area’s difficulties. That woman was not arrested.

Both the defense and the prosecutors employed Woodward’s body cam footage of the arrest during the trial.

Bratt said she sustained injuries due to being thrown on the bridge, the surface of which is a metal grating, by Woodward.

Defense attorneys made motions twice for a verdict from the judge, but Judge Kenneth Easterling, chose both times to defer to the jury. During closing statements, prosecutors characterized Bratt and her attorney’s reasons for not moving as “excuses” and “distractions.”

In the end, the jury sided with the prosecutors.

If Bratt wishes to appeal the jury’s verdict, she must do so within 30 days.

Watch bodycamera videos

Scan this QR code to watch body-camera videos mentioned in this story.

One woman’s journey through immigration detention: ‘I want it to stop’

BY NATHAN GRANGER

Donna Hughes-Brown moved to the United States with her family in 1978 when she was 11 years old.

Her parents are Irish nationals, but HughesBrown was born in England just outside of Birmingham. She met her current husband, U.S. Navy veteran Jim Brown, in 2015; they got married three years later. She’s lived in multiple states and has had legal residency status (i.e. a green card) for much her life.

She speaks with an American accent.

“I don’t look like I’m from another country, nor do I sound like I’m from another country,” Hughes-Brown said. “Anybody, to meet me on the street, would assume I’m American, and I’m not.”

She’s lived in Missouri since 2011 and legally left and re-entered the country in 2016 to go to Ireland without issue. She took a similar trip in 2025, departing from Dublin to Chicago O’Hare International Airport on July 29, 2025. As she and her husband got off the plane, Hughes-Brown said they were separated in the shuffle of the crowd. When she presented her passport to the Customs agent, he told her that she needed to “fill out some paperwork.”

This was the beginning of Hughes-Brown’s roughly five-month journey through immigration detention, much of which was spent at the Campbell County Detention Center. Her story received national attention and even became the topic of a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.

She was released from custody in Campbell County on Dec. 18, 2025.

Hughes-Brown talked with CityBeat at length about her experience moving through the machinery of immigration detention, both in and out of Kentucky. Although we weren’t able to corroborate every detail of her account, her

journey offers insight into immigration detention, both locally and throughout the country.

“I don’t want to assign blame to anybody,” Hughes-Brown said. “I want it to stop. It needs to be fixed. I don’t care who started it. I don’t care what your political affiliation is. It has to stop.”

Sins of the past

Hughes-Brown had a green card, which makes her a legal permanent resident of the U.S., at the time of her detainment in Chicago. So, why was she detained?

Federal law allows for the deportation of legal residents if they commit a crime of “moral turpitude” for which they received a sentence of one year or longer within the 10 years prior to entering the country.

The category of moral turpitude is admittedly broad and actually began appearing in U.S. immigration law in the 19th century. Yet, committing such a crime doesn’t necessarily guarantee someone will get deported; it just makes them eligible. At the end of the day, whether one is actually deported or not comes down to whether enforcement agencies believe it’s worth the effort and resources.

What were Hughes-Brown’s crimes?

Writing two bad checks in Missouri, one in 2012 and the other in 2015. Hughes-Brown told CityBeat that “both times, neither check was an intended fraud check.” Essentially, she said she wrote the checks without checking to see if there was money in her bank account first.

“The first one was written for groceries,” Hughes-Brown said. “The second one was written for gas.” Both checks were written for less than $50 each.

The bounced checks landed her in court.

“Did the check clear? No,” Hughes-Brown said. “Therefore, I am guilty. Whether I intended for it to clear, not clear is a moot point because the end result was still the same. It did not clear.”

Hughes-Brown was ordered to pay restitution for the first check to offset the money the grocery store lost and sentenced to a year of probation.

CityBeat was not able to track down court records for the first check, but other news outlets have obtained charging documents. CityBeat did locate court records for the second check, which show the judge sentenced her to 30 days but suspended the sentence, meaning she didn’t spend any time in jail. Court records indicate she successfully served a year of unsupervised probation.

In short, she did her time and moved on.

Until 2025.

Certain countries, including Ireland, allow for U.S. border agents to operate in their airports.

According to Hughes-Brown, the American Customs agents in Dublin stopped her and her

husband for about an hour and half because of “something about them needing some paperwork” before finally letting them both on the plane.

“As we’re landing in Chicago, there’s an announcement that comes on the loudspeaker about, ‘Please have your passports ready to show the officer at the door,'” Hughes-Brown said. “That was the first clue that maybe something was awry, but I didn’t think much of it.”

She got off the plane first, getting separated from her husband in the line of people behind her. Upon meeting the border agent, she got the same line she got in Ireland: “I had some paperwork that I needed to sign.”

She and her husband were set to fly to St. Louis next, and as they were waiting for the papers, the agent informed them that her husband could go ahead and get on their next flight. She could catch a later flight to St. Louis, the agent said, according to Hughes-Brown. So, her husband got on the next flight as planned.

After her husband left, the agent informed her that they were going to handcuff her and take her down on the tarmac to be transported to a special office on the opposite end of the airport. The handcuffs went on, and she was taken in a van to the office.

“I wait three hours in the waiting room,” Hughes-Brown said. “They finally bring me into the inner sanctum, if you will, and that’s where they tell me that they are waiting on paperwork from Wright County,” where her fraud cases had taken place. At this point, it was about 11 p.m., meaning they weren’t going to get any documents until the next morning.

“The next morning, Thursday morning, the paperwork arrived, and I got told I had to go before a judge,” Hughes-Brown said.

Looking down at her paperwork, she spied the date of her hearing: Aug. 13, 2025. Nearly two weeks out.

“They couldn’t detain me there,” HughesBrown said. So, on Aug. 1, 2025, HughesBrown was transported to a processing center in Broadview, Illinois.

The journey to Kentucky

The Broadview Processing Center, located in Chicago’s Broadview suburb, became the site of public outcry last year following the deployment of large numbers of federal agents to Chicago.

A lawsuit filed late last year accused the government of using the facility to perpetuate “mass constitutional violations.” Reporting by the Associated Press, which covered the court hearing where testimony about the facility’s conditions took place, describe the allegations of the suit: denying proper access to food, water and medical care, and coercing people to sign documents they didn’t understand. Without that knowledge, and without private communication with lawyers, people unknowingly relinquished their rights and faced deportation, the lawsuit alleges.

Hughes-Brown spent three days at the Broadview facility in August before learning she was going to be transported to Campbell County. A transport team came to pick her and two other detainees up, she said.

They were handcuffed and put into a paddy wagon, “no windows, no nothing, and it has two sides to it, and each side seats six people,” Hughes-Brown said.

There were seat belts and handhold straps to secure the passengers, Hughes-Brown said.

“There’s a sign right in front of you on the divider that says, ‘please hold on to the straps,'” she said. In spite of this, Hughes-Brown said, “they handcuffed us in front so we couldn’t reach the straps that were behind us, and they did not seat belt us in. Therefore, we were literally thrown around the van.”

The driver, Hughes-Brown said, “would punch the gas and slam on the brakes, and so we were constantly being thrown against each other. And in my case, I was closest to the driver’s seat, and I kept getting thrown against the side wall there between the driver and the cargo area.”

The journey took about five and a half hours, Hughes-Brown said. They arrived in Kentucky around 7 p.m. without having eaten.

Then, the booking process began.

“Anytime somebody local got brought in, they would stop in-processing us and would do the new person that came in,” Hughes-Brown said. “So, it took us — took them — four hours to in-process.”

The three detainees were placed in a holding cell while processing took place, still not having eaten.

“This holding cell was absolutely horrific,” Hughes-Brown said. “It was full of bugs. There was feces on the wall. There was an awful odor coming from the drain.”

They were given mats to sit on.

After about another hour of waiting, HughesBrown said, the three immigration detainees –

two of whom spoke English – were moved into the general dormitories of the Campbell County Detention Center. Hughes-Brown estimated the entire process, from getting picked up in Broadview to finally moving into the detention center’s dorms, took about 12 hours.

CityBeat spoke to jailers in all three NKY counties and toured the Boone and Campbell county jails. The people we spoke to disagree that Hughes-Brown was treated differently than anyone else.

“The one thing that we preach and we expect and we demand from our employees,” Kenton County Jailer Marc Fields said to LINK nky, is “that everybody’s treated the same. I don’t care what you’re there for… They’re being treated just like every other inmate, and we will continue to do that.”

Boone County Jailer Jason Maydak said that while people think detainees are treated poorly when they are incarcerated, it is actually the exact opposite.

“That’s why I allowed you to walk through there,” Maydak said.

CityBeat did not witness any mistreatment of inmates during our tours. Keep reading to hear more from NKY jailers, including what we saw during tours of the Boone and Campbell county facilities.

At Campbell County Detention Center

Other immigration detainees detainees — about 14, Hughes-Brown estimates — were already there in the pod where Hughes-Brown was placed. One woman, she said, was from England, two were from India and the rest were Latina. They co-mingled with local inmates.

“Some on aggravated assault charges, some on drug charges, some on pay-to-stay, like they didn’t pay fines,” Hughes-Brown said. “They ran the gamut.”

Although Hughes-Brown was critical of her treatment and the treatment of others during her time in Campbell County, she had no illusions about the fact that she was in jail. She used the example of prison food.

“You’re in a jail, OK.” Hughes-Brown said. “It’s not going to be home cuisine; I get it.”

Still, one criticism in particular that stood out in Hughes-Brown’s account was what she saw as inadequate attention to healthcare necessities among the detainees. As someone who works in home healthcare, Hughes-Brown said there were several tendencies she observed and even experienced that didn’t sit right with her.

“I had really high blood pressure going in there, imagine that,” Hughes-Brown said. “I was in there a week and a half before I finally got blood pressure meds; my blood pressure meds that I actually have prescribed to me.”

Another issue she said she observed was an inadequate supply of feminine hygiene products for the female detainees. At one point, she said, as much as a third of the women in her pod would be without hygiene products, which is disallowed under Kentucky administrative regulations.

When Hughes-Brown spoke out about these and other issues, she said, she was retaliated against.

“I was put in isolation twice,” Hughes-Brown said. “Plus, I had bunk restrictions, mat restric-

tions, you name it. They tried their damnedest to break me down.”

Her husband, Jim Brown, was trying his best to resolve some of these issues from the outside. In a complaint submitted to the Kentucky Board of Nursing about one of the nurses at the facility, Brown alleges that his wife was denied proper migraine medication.

“She has migraines about once or twice a month,” Brown wrote in his complaint, dated Oct. 1, 2025. “Has prescription medication for them but is detained and doesn’t have them [sic] She started a headache over 24 hours ago and asked …[sic] for some medication like tylenol [sic] to help with medications [sic] He refused to give her even tylenol.. [sic] And instead told her to use breathing exercises and drink water. Id [sic] like to know which protocol he got that from.”

Needless to say, Brown is not a fan of the Campbell County Detention Center.

“The first month that this happened, I called and called and called because there was things that were going on that were wrong in the jail,” Brown said. “One of the instances was Donna was forced to eat a pill off the floor for medication. There was toilets that were clogged up for a week at a time. There were five, six people in a pod having to share the same toilet, all kinds of different things, just egregious stuff.”

After about a month and a half of calling, Brown said he was finally able to get through to James Daley, the jailer.

“He, point blank, told me that Donna was lying to him, that that couldn’t possibly be in his jail,” Brown said.

Brown works as a CT scan tech. In the months that followed, he said, he made numerous calls to various departments within the commonwealth, including the attorney general’s office, to get answers. Like Hughes-Brown, he was perturbed by what he characterized as inadequate medical care.

“The Department of Corrections called me and finally asked me to ‘Please don’t call the attorney general again.’ I had left 18 voicemails,” Brown said. “Because my wife’s in jail. You’re telling me nothing, and then you’re calling me a liar. She’s not getting a proper medical care. That was a big thing with me. I mean, I understand she was in jail, and it’s not going to be the Taj Mahal, but proper medical care, sorry, but that should be not a privilege. It should be a right.”

Aug. 13 finally arrived. No hearing.

“Aug. 15, I was told first thing in the morning, I was told, ‘Get ready, you’re going before the

judge,” Hughes-Brown said, for a bond hearing, only for it to be denied.

“The DHS attorney says that I am considered an arriving alien because even though I’m a [legal public resident], my status as a [legal public resident] was stripped because I had committed a crime while I was here in the United States,” Hughes-Brown said. According to Hughes-Brown, the DHS attorneys argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to decide if she was eligible for bond or not. HughesBrown’s lawyer later requested another bond hearing, but that request was denied.

The media began to notice Hughes-Brown’s story in early October. After doing an interview with Fox 19, her case gained prominence back in Missouri. With the help of the Irish consulate in Georgia, she said, her lawyer and husband began getting the word out about her case.

She had what she believed to be a final hearing

in late October that would determine whether or not she would be deported, but the hearing type was changed at the last minute, HughesBrown said. She was unsure why.

“Well, the day before that hearing, my lawyer gets a message saying it’s not going to be a final hearing,” Hughes-Brown said. “There was no reason for it. Like, no explanation, no nothing.” After some back and forth with the judge and the DHS attorney, another hearing was rescheduled for December 2025. Until then, Hughes-Brown was back in jail.

Meanwhile in Congress

Hughes-Brown credited Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-Rhode Island, with making her case nationally prominent by bringing her husband to DHS committee hearings in Washington, D.C. in November and December. At one committee hearing on Dec. 11, 2025, Magaziner questioned Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about Hughes-Brown’s case.

“What possible explanation can there be for locking up his [Brown’s] wife for four months when she has committed no crime other than writing a couple of bad checks for $80?” Magaziner asked Noem.

“Sir, it is not my prerogative, my latitude or my job to pick and choose which laws in this country get enforced and which ones don’t,” Noem replied.

But, Magaziner challenged, Noem has broad discretion.

“You can issue parole,” Magaziner said. “You can do all kinds of things, but you’re choosing not to.”

Continues

Continued from page 7

When asked if she would review HughesBrown’s case, Noem replied, “I will review the case.”

About a week later, Hughes-Brown had her last hearing on Dec. 18, 2025. She admitted that she didn’t understand all of the ins and outs of the process, but she told CityBeat that it wasn’t clear which way the judge was leaning by the end of the hearing. Two hours later she was released. Given the ambiguity of the hearing, she wasn’t sure what happened, but she was finally out.

When CityBeat spoke with Hughes-Brown, she said she would like to apply for citizenship and go back to work, but she can’t because the federal government has yet to return her passport and residence permit.

“They’re still in Chicago somewhere,” HughesBrown said.

Immigration detention in NKY

Criticism against federal immigration agencies has increased over the past month or so, especially in the wake of the killing of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents in Minnesota. In NKY, people have come out to all three county fiscal courts to express concern about local institutional cooperation with ICE. One speaker in Campbell County recently characterized ICE as a “vigilante force” with which local governments shouldn’t contract.

CityBeat interviewed two of the county jailers, as well as some lower-ranked staff at the county detention centers, prior to the publication of this story, and toured two of the detention centers: Boone County and Campbell County. Jailer Daley invited CityBeat to tour the jail but declined to be interviewed. However, he recently spoke publicly before Campbell County Fiscal Court to address residents’ concerns about the jail’s relations with ICE. All three jails in NKY house immigration detainees.

The tours were admittedly brief, but officials at the jails all expressed a commitment to professionalism and respect toward the inmates.

Unlike Boone County, Campbell County did not allow CityBeat to take photos of the jail’s interior. The Campbell County Detention Center is split into different sections, which were built at different times. Maj. Ryan Grosser, who guided CityBeat on the tour, described how various parts of the center had been repurposed for different uses throughout the building’s history. Pods varied in size and inmate amenities, depending on the type of prisoner they housed and their age.

The areas in the Boone County Detention Cen-

ter that CityBeat observed were comparatively more uniform. Camera feeds of prisoners’ areas were displayed on screens in Maydak’s office.

CityBeat wasn’t allowed to speak with the inmates during the tours, either. However, we did interview via teleconference another immigration detainee, Beata Siemionkowicz, who had been transported from Illinois to Campbell County with Hughes-Brown.

Siemionkowicz is Polish and first came to the U.S. in 1995. She got her green card in 2003 and was detained by ICE in Illinois in August, per DHS documents her family shared with CityBeat.

Siemionkowicz has two petty theft charges in the U.S., and DHS argued in her removal order that she had a record back in Poland. Siemionkowicz’s family shared a stamped affidavit from the Polish government stating she didn’t have a criminal record in Poland, as of Feb. 25, 2025, challenging the DHS’ account.

“I lost everything,” Siemionkowicz, who had built a whole life in Illinois, told CityBeat.

Siemionkowicz reiterated some of the criticisms about health and cleanliness at Campbell County that Hughes-Brown had expressed. She was ordered to be deported on Dec. 8, 2025, but she has time to appeal the order. She is still in the Campbell County Detention Center.

Grosser, like the other officials who spoke with CityBeat, seemed to take his role of keeping the inmates safe seriously. As an aside, HughesBrown, even though she was critical of Jailer Daley, was complimentary of her interactions with Grosser.

CityBeat inquired after some of the health concerns Hughes-Brown expressed with Grosser during our tour. The jail did not, Grosser argued, have issues with mold or other pathogens. He even took care of ordering supplies for feminine hygiene products himself, he said, although he did say that inmates would sometimes repurpose feminine pads for other uses, which could lead to dwindling supplies.

Invoice records from the detention centers indicate the centers make $88 per day per detainee, not including transportation and other reimbursements. This is a considerably higher rate than what they get for housing state detainees.

CityBeat made several records requests to the jails in an effort to get a handle on the volume of immigration detainees that move through NKY.

Kenton County has housed immigration detainees for the shortest amount of time of the three detention centers. Invoice records to the

federal government indicate the Kenton County Detention Center invoiced anywhere from $41,272 in May 2025 (shortly after immigration detention began there) to $271,392 for housing immigration detainees, as of the end of October. There were 157 immigration detainees in Kenton County as of the end of October, according to invoice records.

Campbell County denied a direct request for information on immigration detainees but honored a request for invoice records. Records indicate the detention center would invoice the federal government as much as $112,000 a month in 2025.

Boone County was the most forthright in its responses to our records requests. One response was a 254-page document detailing not only immigration detainees’ names but also their nationalities, booking dates and release dates. Between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 2, 2025, Boone County Detention Center housed 6,343 ICE detainees. Most of them, roughly 98%, were men. A monthly invoice in 2025 from Boone County could reach as high as $574,000.

Eight county facilities in Kentucky hold ICE detainees.

Immigration arrests themselves largely fall to federal enforcers, although there is currently a push at the state level to mandate ICE task force agreements with local departments throughout the commonwealth. The bill, House Bill 47 (which is sponsored by several NKY legislators), is still moving through the committee process.

No departments in the region have task force agreements currently. However, the Kenton Detention Center does have an agreement that enables corrections officers to issue arrest warrants and removal papers so that inmates who have committed immigration violations can be transferred to federal custody upon their scheduled release from local criminal custody. A separate agreement enables corrections officers to question inmates about their immigration status.

ICE agents are present in NKY. Sources in the community have informed CityBeat of raids and arrests throughout the region. In March of last year, the City of Covington even released a statement denying involvement in federal arrests after videos of agents began circulating on social media.

Following the passage of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill in July 2025, ICE is now one of the most well-funded federal enforcement agencies in the county, with nearly $78 billion at its disposal.

Given all of this, one wonders how many more people are stuck in the machine?

“It has got to stop,” Hughes-Brown said.

In photography, the phrase “long view” serves two primary functions: long-distance vision and long-duration viewing.

But it also implies a broader perspective, one that places emphasis on distance, duration and how we should consider both past and present. It’s a type of thinking that can be brought into different facets of life, whether you’re simply viewing a work of art, or even creating a community space that allows for forward-thinking while paying homage to the artists and craftspeople who came before us.

For FotoFocus, a lens-based art nonprofit in Cincinnati, “The Long View” is the theme of its upcoming Biennial, a month-long series of exhibitions that take place across dozens of venues throughout the region every other October. But the theme could also apply to the organization’s latest and biggest project: the FotoFocus Center, a community-based gallery, exhibition hall and artistic hub that will open on Liberty Street in Over-the-Rhine this spring.

“As we’ve gotten larger, as the Biennial has occurred, I think something that we realized was lacking was a place to call home and a place for people to visit us outside of that programming, to know that we’re truly a year-round staple in this community,” FotoFocus Executive Director Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth told CityBeat. “And I think that was really what started the idea of how do we cement that?”

The opening of the FotoFocus Center marks the first time the nonprofit will have its own space for the Biennial, now in its eighth iteration. But the center will also allow the nonprofit to offer year-round programming, like exhibits, educational events, artist talks and film screenings — all for free — and a chance to expand its reach into the community and center photography in Cincinnati’s arts landscape.

“I think the Biennial and being able to have our own space, it just helps us really ground the organization while still being able to provide more to the community,” said Emily Akil, FotoFocus’ communications and outreach manager. “We’re hoping that having this space will allow us to connect with more people and allow more people to understand what FotoFocus is and what we do.”

Past and future through a viewfinder

Good art takes time, and the FotoFocus Center is a work of art in its own right.

The project will be over four years in the making from the time it was announced to the public in 2022 to its opening, projected for May 29 this year. But now that it’s nearing completion, you can see the vision that has taken place: both an homage to photography (as well as the people who built Over-the-Rhine nearly 200 years ago) and a place where everyone is welcome to explore art through a lens.

FOTOFOCUS’ new center turns the

Cincinnati’s lens-based arts nonprofit offers a sneak peek at their new home

BY KATHERINE BARRIER

The building, located at 228 E. Liberty St., is two stories and around 14,700 square feet, with an enormous lobby and two spacious galleries, as well as an office space and conference room for the FotoFocus team. The exterior mimics photography’s gray scale: an ebonized black brick on the lower level that moves to a steel terrace and then white Travertine stone, which sits on a custom gridded steel frame that resembles a viewfinder of a camera when you look at it head-on from Sycamore Street.

“These are little details that people may or may not pick up on, but photo enthusiasts will likely see some of it and think, ‘That’s super cool,’” Akil said.

Initially, more of the building was going to be made of steel, but prices for the material skyrocketed as the project began. Project architect Jose Garcia of local firm Jose Garcia Design decided to replace that steel with Cross-Laminated Timber, a light and sustainable engineered wood that is both fire-resistant and strong enough to use as an alternative to concrete and steel.

And while the FotoFocus Center was the first construction project in the area to utilize Cross-Laminated Timber, it wasn’t the first project completed that used it. That honor belongs to Cincinnati Public Radio’s new building in Evanston, which finished construction last spring.

But the pivot from steel to Cross-Laminate Timber only added to the FotoFocus Center’s photography-inspired exterior aesthetic.

“The warmth of the wood, along with the white of the stone, is really supposed to reflect the warmth of photography and the different scales and colors within images,” Akil said.

The large windows on the front of the building, while offering tons of natural light, also play into the history of photography, as early studios had to have a bank of windows for exposures, Siegwarth said.

The windows, as well as some of the building’s other architectural elements, also represent the industrial architecture of historic places in Over-the-Rhine, like Findlay Market — buildings that made the community what it is today. While the FotoFocus Center is a new and shiny building, Garcia wanted to ensure it also fit cohesively into the community’s mix of Italianate and industrial architecture.

The black brick of the lower level is also a nod to the German and Italian masons who built the neighborhood in the 19th century, as is the corbeling (a shifting layout for the bricks) design of those bricks. If you stand at the corner of the building opposite of Sycamore, you’ll see how prominent that corbeling design is. Siegwarth anticipates a lot of Instagram selfies to be taken at that corner.

“They didn’t have luxurious material, so they used just humble brick,” Garcia said. “And with the few means that they had, they managed to create this beautiful neighborhood. If you look at all the details on the brick, you see the care that they put in, making the brick something extraordinary … So all the corbeling is a reference to that. It’s a reference to cornices — [the builders’] understanding [of] decoration and elevating the building just by using a very simple thing. I always loved the neighborhood, and this is basically a tribute to that.”

Ensuring the building merges cohesively with the neighborhood isn’t just a fun design choice; it also signals that it’s a place meant for the community. Not a place of pretension or exclusion, but somewhere everyone can come and appreciate lens-based art.

“We want the community to know that [the FotoFocus Center] is a space for them,” Akil said. “We truly want everyone to feel welcome and like the FotoFocus Center is accessible to the entire community.”

“And I hope — to anybody and everybody who drives by or walks by — I hope it feels exactly like a friendly and open, welcoming [space],” Garcia added.

As you move into the lobby of the building, you’re greeted by soaring ceilings and spacious galleries — a 3,000-square-foot one on the first floor and another 1,500-square-foot one on the second — but the airiness and the white walls ideal for exhibiting artwork don’t detract from its warmth; instead, the knotty pine ceilings and red oak trim complement the space and turn it into an invitation — an artsy retreat in the middle of the city.

“It feels tall, but warm, with the wood up and down,” Garcia said, gesturing to the pine ceiling in the lobby. “That was something that we love, how wood is [implemented] throughout the building and makes you feel at home.”

While the aesthetics themselves are impressive, so is how they were maintained from concept to reality. Garcia said that when they had to pivot from using mainly steel, they opted for this alternative structure, which was designed here in Cincinnati in conjunction with a Canadian company. The building came to Cincinnati in pre-cut and pre-finished pieces and had to be assembled on-site, with very little room for error — four millimeters, said Siegwarth.

With so little wiggle room, Garcia had to figure out how to conceal the components of the building that make it function — the HVAC system, electric, plumbing, the duct work — without compromising on the aesthetic of the FotoFocus Center. Normally, those parts would be hidden in the floor or ceiling, but that wouldn’t work in this space if they wanted to keep the pine ceiling, Garcia said.

“Normally, you hide all the guts of the building above the ceiling, below the floor. There’s no space in here for that. That wood up there,” he said, pointing to the pine ceiling, “that’s the floor, and we don’t want to cover it because it’s beautiful … So we didn’t want to cover all this beauty with drywall or floating ceiling or anything like that. So we had to plan very carefully: How [do] we [install] all the guts that make the building work without exposing them?”

The answer: behind a very thick wall. A wall at the back of the first-floor gallery hides all those components, with just some round, metal HVAC vents at the top of the wall hinting at the heavy lifting happening out of sight, allowing the space to focus solely on the design and art, as intended.

As you move throughout the galleries, you’ll notice the exhibit walls jut up from the floor and out into the space, like they’re their own canvases waiting to be decorated. The galleries are flexible too, offering the ability to switch from one kind of exhibit to another, or to add more components like wall builds, Siegwarth said. And while the galleries are spacious, the lighting system offers the potential for more intimate exhibits, and the building has been wired so FotoFocus can lean into other forms of lens-based art, not solely photography.

“We have the ability to wire projections to multi-video, multi-channel installations. We want to play with what photography can be,” Siegwarth said.

What’s coming to the FotoFocus Center

Walking through the galleries, Siegwarth pointed out how each has its own personality. The first-floor gallery is double the size of the one on the second-floor, with slightly higher ceilings, offering for more flexibility in programming. But the second floor gallery feels cozier and more intimate and can serve as either an addendum to an exhibit on the first floor or host its own.

“It’ll make it easier for us to kind of consider how programming fits in each one,” Siegwarth said. “Our first exhibition will be on both floors, but this allows us also the ability to have two exhibitions simultaneously, to stagger our schedule. Those are things we’ll figure out in the first couple of years — what makes the most sense for us.”

The FotoFocus Center is projected to open May 29, kicking off programming with its inaugural exhibit, the details of which FotoFocus will announce in the coming months. Siegwarth sees this first year and the inaugural exhibit as a chance to experiment, with programming becoming more robust in 2027. Akil said they foresee having between three to six exhibits a year, depending on how they decide to use the two gallery spaces and what the curatorial process will end up looking like.

Programming itself will focus on community and accessibility, as well as being able to appeal to a broader audience. But Siegwarth said FotoFocus has also always considered its programming to be interdisciplinary and at the forefront of conversations about the world through photography as well. They also won’t try to reinvent wheel when it comes to arts programming in the city.

“We’re a nice equidistance between the Contemporary Arts Center and Cincinnati Art Museum, and our programming has always complemented, not competed, with them,” Siegwarth says. “So I really see this as an exciting moment for Cincinnati at large.”

“We want it to be a place to collaborate,” Akil added. “We still anticipate working with other venues and having guest lectures and bringing

students into the space. So really, we want to make it a place for everybody, where people feel comfortable and can learn about photography, whether they are brand new to it or seasoned patrons of ours.”

The Long View

Following FotoFocus’ inaugural exhibit, which will run through August, the team will begin prepping the new center for its 2026 Biennial. While the center will offer a home for the nonprofit’s own Biennial exhibit this year, the FotoFocus team said the event’s overall structure will not change, with other exhibits on display at around 70 different venues, like museums, galleries, universities and public spaces, throughout Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Northern Kentucky.

FotoFocus Artistic Director Kevin Moore is curating the works that will make up this year’s event. All works will fit into the theme of “The Long View,” with selected art focusing on the aspects of time and perspective in photography and film and how these media shape our understanding of the world. While the theme fits with the opening of the center, it also coincides with the United States’ 250th anniversary, offering attendees the opportunity to reflect on the country’s history, as well as its future.

“Our country is undergoing a lot of turbulence as it approaches its 250th anniversary, and a lot

of us are anxiously caught up in the moment, worried about what the future holds,” Moore said in a previous press release. “The Long View suggests we might benefit from gaining a broader perspective by looking to the past to better imagine a future.”

FotoFocus will announce more Biennial details, including programming, in June, but Siegwarth said, like previous years, it will balance both emerging artists and established voices.

“Our Biennial system, in and of itself, is a way of balancing that,” Siegwarth told CityBeat. “It’s been very democratic. We do bring in international artists, nationally recognized artists, but we also have our own call for entry. We’re working with artists directly here, regionally, to produce exhibitions and support their work. And through the Biennial at large, we’re providing grants to local institutions to create programming that fits their mission, and much of that then goes toward local artist support. This building will continue that too.”

Since its inception in 2012, FotoFocus’ Biennial has attracted over 1 million visitors. The Opening Weekend will be held on Oct. 1-3 and include programming like talks, tours, panel discussions and receptions, with the rest of the Biennial running through October.

To stay updated on the FotoFocus Center and Biennial, visit fotofocus.org

ARTS & CULTURE

It’s been cold for what feels like forever, and if you’ve run out of things to do inside, you’re not the only one.

Here are some interesting things to do outside of the house without needing to brave the cold.

Krohn Conservatory

Need to find a warm, indoor environment to escape the frigid temperatures and the sloppy, snowy conditions? Consider visiting Krohn Conservatory, Cincinnati’s historic botanical garden in Eden Park. Housing over 3,500 plant species from around the world, Krohn gives visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in diverse environments surrounded by exotic plant life.

Currently, Krohn is hosting Moonlight Menagerie, which opened Jan. 17 and runs through April 19. The exhibition transforms the conservatory into a night-blooming garden. Some of its marquee features include a nocturnal symphony, specialized bioluminescent lighting and artistic renderings of Ohio’s nighttime animals by artist Mike DeMaria.

Krohn Conservatory is open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with admission priced at $10 for adults and $7 for children ages five through 17. Children under 4 years old enter for free.

Website: cincinnati-oh.gov/cincyparks Address: 1501 Eden Park Drive in Cincinnati Phone: 513-421-4086

Let’s say you don’t actually hate the snow, but instead embrace it. In fact, you thrive in it. If this describes you, then what’re you waiting for!? Get to Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

For $84, people aged 13 and older can purchase a lift ticket to shred the gnar on their skis or snowboard. Lift tickets cost $64 for kids under 12, seniors over 60 and active-duty military.

If shredding isn’t your thing, you might prefer

Tired of being inside? Here are 5 ways to escape the winter weather in Greater Cincinnati

BY KENTON HORNBECK

snow tubing, which costs $34 for ages 13 and up and $29 for ages 12 and under, seniors over 60, and active-duty military.

Website: perfectnorth.com

Address: 19074 Perfect Lane in Lawrenceburg Phone: 812-537-3754

Madison Bowl

Bowling is another great option to get out of the snow. With numerous options throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, you’re unlikely to make a bad pick. Still, we believe Madison Bowl at 4761 Madison Road is an excellent choice. Featuring 32 full-size lanes, a full-service bar and an on-site diner, Madison Bowl is a blast from the past.

Opened in 1957, Madison Bowl is cherished as a local staple. Inside the bowling alley is the Madison Dine, which serves classic comfort-food burgers and breakfast, the perfect food to relax on a snow day.

Madison Bowl is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with extended hours until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Website: madisonbowlcincy.com

Address: 4761 Madison Road in Cincinnati Phone: 513-271-2700

Newport Aquarium

If you want to feel tropical, check out the Newport Aquarium, which is home to countless aquatic species that may put you in a sunsoaked state of mind. The aquarium, located at Newport on the Levee in NKY, is home to thousands of sea creatures in over one million gallons of water.

Visitors can dive into a range of interactive experiences, from petting sharks and stingrays at the touch tank to walking across Shark Bridge, a 75-foot suspended rope bridge hanging just inches above sharks and rays. Newport Aquarium also features more than 200 feet of underwater acrylic tunnels, including the Coral

Reef and Amazon tunnels, offering 360-degree views of marine life.

Newport Aquarium is typically open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, with extended weekend hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets operate on a “Plan-Ahead Pricing” system, so prices are lower when bought earlier. Adult tickets — ages 13 and up — usually cost between $23 and $40, while children’s tickets — ages 2–12 — range from about $15 to $32. A timed-entry reservation is necessary for general admission.

Website: newportaquarium.com

Address: 1 Levee Way in Newport Phone: 1-800-406-3474

American Sign Museum

For a stimulating visual and educational experience, people should check out the American Sign Museum, located at 1330 Monmouth Ave. in Cincinnati’s Camp Washington.

The museum showcases more than 100 years of signage history, with more than 20,000 square feet of neon, porcelain enamel and plastic signage. It is the largest public museum in the United States dedicated to signs.

Explore some of its most famous items, such as the 1963 McDonald’s sign with a single arch that stands over 20 feet tall, showcasing the iconic “Speedee” mascot.

The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission is $20 for adults. Seniors 65 and older, students and military members receive discounted rates ranging from $10 to $15. Children 12 and under are admitted free, with up to three children allowed per paid adult.

Website: americansignmuseum.org

Address: 1330 Monmouth Ave. in Cincinnati Phone: 513-541-6366

Introducing CityBeat’s new Arts & Culture Reporter

BY KANE MITTEN

Hey there, CityBeat readers. Kane Mitten here. It’s an honor to join the team of a publication that I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. As a lifelong resident of the Queen City, I’m so excited to showcase Cincinnati’s arts and culture scene and shine a light on underrepresented communities in our local area.

A bit about me: I grew up here, went to Northern Kentucky University for a double major in journalism and communication, then worked at Local 12 WKRC and Cincinnati Magazine. I usually spend my free time going to the movies, playing intramural sports or listening to records at home with my cat. I’m also a massive Cincinnati sports fan, and will continue to let the Reds and Bengals keep playing with my emotions for as long as I live.

In my time as a journalist, I’ve chronicled the city’s growing local hip-hop scene, investigated the sudden closure of a downtown restaurant that tried to get away with not paying their workers, ate and reviewed more amazing food than I can remember, created an expansive number of “Best Of” lists, and profiled fascinating local figures — like a local man who went viral on TikTok for maintaining an eel pit in his basement, or a 60-year-old Loveland resident who is the oldest in the world to complete open water swimming’s Grand Slam.

In 2024, I won an award for Best Arts Report-

After leaving my role at Cincinnati Magazine, I took some time away from the journalism world to reorient myself and decide what I wanted to get out of writing. During that time, I joined the service industry for a few years — my friends and I often joke about how I liked writing about food and drink so much that I decided to participate in the industry myself. (If you’ve been to Alice in the last two years, for example, there’s a good chance I served you a drink.)

Now, with a fresh perspective, I’m ready to continue telling the stories of the city I love. What better place to do that than CityBeat? If you’re reading this and you’re doing something cool in Cincinnati, shoot me an email at kmitten@citybeat.com. I can’t wait to hear from you all.

Everything we saw at the Cincinnati Cupid’s Undie Run

PHOTOS BY MARTIN LOPEZ ISIDRO

Yes, it’s a run. Yes, it’s in your underwear. And yes, it’s for a great cause.

Every February, thousands of undie runners in cities across the U.S. come together to support those affected by Neurofibromatosis, a group of genetic conditions that cause tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body.

Cupid’s Undie Run kicked off on Feb. 7 with drinking and dancing, then participants jogged it out with a mile(ish) run and ended with a dance party.

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FOOD & DRINK

Date-night pressure is real, but these restaurants make it easier.

Three Greater Cincinnati spots just earned a place on OpenTable’s most romantic list.

The top 100 romantic restaurants in America for 2026 list, according to OpenTable, is generated from over 9 million reviews from verified OpenTable diners and dining metrics from Dec. 1, 2024, to Nov. 30, 2025.

This year, downtown’s Boca and Jag’s Steak & Seafood in West Chester return to the list for the second year in a row, and Carlo & Johnny in Montgomery is featured again, as it has been for several years running.

Though you might not be able to snag a reservation this close to Valentine’s Day. Keep these spots in mind for your next romantic outing.

Boca

An icon of Cincinnati’s dining scene, Boca is a contemporary European restaurant located downtown.

Boca’s menu blends French and Italian-inspired cuisine, artfully prepared with seasonal ingredients. The restaurant has an intimate atmosphere, perfect for celebrations, serving

Three Greater Cincinnati restaurants make OpenTable’s ‘Top 100 Romantic Restaurants’ list

CITYBEAT STAFF

dishes like gnocchi and scallops to standouts like its pommes soufflés and beef Wellington, along with a well-curated wine list.

Boca is located at114 E. Sixth St., Cincinnati

Carlo & Johnny

A dining destination with as much character as cuisine, Carlo & Johnny by Jeff Ruby is in a historic Montgomery mansion just outside Cincinnati.

The steakhouse offers five private dining rooms, three wine cellars and live music, making it the kind of place to choose for special occasions, celebrations or any evening that calls for elevated food and atmosphere. The

restaurant is a blend of classic fine dining with intimate energy. The setting, once a stagecoach stop, speakeasy and gangster hideout, creates a unique backdrop for a menu built around U.S.D.A. Prime steaks, seafood, an acclaimed raw bar and an extensive wine list.

Carlo & Johnny is located at 9769 Montgomery Road, Montgomery

Jag’s Steak & Seafood

Technically, Jags Steak & Seafood is in West Chester, not Cincinnati, but we’re still including it in the list.

Jag’s is a fine-dining spot just north of Cincinnati, beloved for combining classic steakhouse

excellence with seafood and a lively, full-evening experience. Since opening in 2003, it’s built a reputation around premium Certified Angus Beef steaks, fresh seafood and a raw bar, served in a range of elegant dining rooms and lounges, including a popular piano bar with live music most nights.

Jag’s Steak & Seafood is located at 5980 West Chester Road, West Chester Township.

Other heavy hitters named to the list include: Lindey’s, Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse, Cento – German Village and Butcher & Rose in Columbus, Pier W in Cleveland and Giuseppe’s Ristorante Italiano in Lexington.

SOUND ADVICE

BY JASON GARGANO

MIGUEL

Feb. 27: Andrew J Brady Music Center

A lot has happened since Miguel released his 2017 album War & Leisure, a deft mix of electrolaced R&B, rock and funk that cemented the California native as a worthy disciple of Prince.

Trump 1.0, Black Lives Matter, the COVID pandemic, the separation from his longtime partner, the birth of his first child, Trump 2.0 and more couldn’t help but alter Miguel’s headspace over the last eight years. Cue his long-gestating fifth album, CAOS, which dropped last October to a curiously muted response. (For context, he released four albums between 2010 and 2017, less time than it took for CAOS to surface.)

The measured reaction to Miguel’s latest isn’t a surprise — it’s darker and more ominous than anything he’s yet produced, the sound of a man at a crossroads. Album opener “CAOS,” which is Spanish for “chaos”, is an intriguing mélange of Miguel’s signature sensuous elements (penetrating falsetto vocals and Latin-flavored acoustic guitar) with dense beats and darkhued atmospherics accentuated by one of the few lyrics sung in English, “I’m inches from a sabotage.”

The next song, “The Killing,” opens with dirgelike menace, a metaphorical scene setter for an extinguished relationship despite likeminded sexual proclivities.

“This album has a much more aggressive, angsty outlook, not necessarily in the sound, but definitely in the lyrics,” Miguel said in a recent interview with Grammy.com. “There’s a raw honesty running through it, a kind of underlying tension that comes from confronting what’s no longer working. It reflects the evolution of my internal operating systems, learning to face the broken parts of myself head on instead of avoiding them.”

The sounds on CAOS are in fact grittier and more experimental, marked by electric guitars that dip into psychedelia and unexpected, frequently discordant rhythms.

“Nearsight (SID)” is perhaps the best example of Miguel’s current melding of introspection and sonic restlessness — it’s an ambient, slow-burning look at how transcendental meditation has altered its often-indulgent creator’s life before jump-cutting in the final third via driving drums and an urgent vocal delivery.

It culminates with this statement of intent: “Breathe it in now/Let me meditate/We going in now/Till you levitate.”

MUSIC

In one of our January editions, we asked our readers to submit photos they’ve taken at local concerts. We were blown away at the response — not only how many people submitted photos, but how stunning they were.

We got so many that we just had to share more of them with you. All photos were taken at local shows — some feature local artists and some national ones. Regardless, each of these photos captures the essence of why we go to concerts: To be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

To submit photos that may be considered in an upcoming issue of CityBeat, email news@citybeat.com.

Concert Photos: Ghost

TMUSIC