This week, the Trump-hating National Review published an article that attempted to recast Ohio Democrat gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton as a friend of federal immigration enforcement, offering little pushback to her claim that she would work with ICE if elected governor. The record says otherwise. Acton is backed by Ohio Democrat Mayors Justin Bibb, Andrew Ginther, and Aftab Pureval, all of whom have spent the past year obstructing ICE or working to ban the agency from their cities outright.
One of the most laughable stretches of National Review’s puff piece comes when the publication lets Acton claim, without challenge, that her 2025 remarks likening ICE agents to the Ku Klux Klan were taken out of context.
Acton’s quote on the matter reads, in full:
“There are people coming out there wearing masks with all the gear on. We don’t even know who they are. They’re just showing up. Does this not feel like the Ku Klux Klan to anyone? That’s what we’re seeing. And that is not okay, guys. That’s why I’m saying to you, this is not a drill. This is not a drill. We cannot afford to look the other way.”
Read it for yourself and ask: what context, exactly, is missing?
The same article passes along Acton’s claim that she would work with ICE even though she has been endorsed by every major Ohio Democrat who has implemented or supported anti-ICE policy.
On Nov. 24, 2025, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, and Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz jointly endorsed Acton, an endorsement featured on her official campaign site.
Acton thanked the mayors for their support on her official X account, posting:
“Ohio is fortunate to have some of the finest mayors in America leading Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo.”
Those “finest mayors in America” run the very cities refusing to help ICE. On Jan. 28, 2025, Bibb posted an official City of Cleveland statement reading: “Cleveland police are tasked with protecting public safety, and while we will take action against anybody who commits violent crimes, we are not enforcing general federal immigration law.”
Columbus is no different. On Dec. 18, 2025, after ICE made arrests in Columbus, Ginther declared the federal presence unwelcome at a city news conference: “We have not asked for and do not need this unwelcome intervention.”
The very next day, Ginther posted a video from his official mayoral account. “Columbus is proud to be a welcoming city,” he wrote, before telling immigrant residents: “We have your back, today and always.”
Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval has gone even further. On Jan. 29, 2025, Pureval confirmed Cincinnati police would not help ICE remove illegal immigrants. Cincinnati has called itself a sanctuary city since a 2017 council resolution. Pureval told FOX19 NOW: “There is no role for municipalities in federal immigration enforcement.”
In January 2026, he doubled down on Spectrum News.
“We are not interested in any kind of immigration enforcement because number one, that’s not our job,” Pureval said, before declaring: “Cincinnati is still a sanctuary city.”
And on Jan. 24, 2026, Pureval posted on his own Facebook page that he stands with Minnesota Democrats in their fight against ICE:
“I stand with Mayor Jacob Frey in condemning the federal government’s occupation that endangers communities instead of protecting them. For the sake of public safety and basic humanity, ICE must leave Minneapolis now.”
Ohio mayors supporting Acton have written anti-ICE obstruction into law. In February 2026, Columbus City Council passed emergency ordinances, later signed by Ginther, barring police from partnering with ICE. That same month, Cincinnati City Council passed measures Pureval supported banning ICE from staging on city property and blocking the city from sharing surveillance data for civil immigration enforcement.
Amy Acton is also endorsed by Ohio Democrat United States Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, which she blasted across her website and social media accounts. Brown is backed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the same organization fundraising for Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Islamic communist Democrat Senate nominee who supports abolishing ICE.
Brown’s own Senate record on ICE is atrocious. He has effectively voted to abolish the agency via the defunding bills he supported. In 2019, Brown co-sponsored the End Mass Deportation Act, which would have repealed President Trump’s order prioritizing the removal of illegal immigrants charged with or convicted of crimes, and would have stopped Washington from withholding federal grants from sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with ICE.
Then there is Ohio Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio, who endorsed Acton early in the campaign. On August 15, 2025, Acton’s official campaign page announced Antonio’s endorsement.
This is the same Antonio who, on January 26, posted official letters on her Ohio Senate page telling Sens. Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno to vote against more ICE money: “I urge you to vote against funding increases for ICE and to renegotiate DHS funding.”
Antonio’s letter went on to claim that ICE operations “endanger lives, destroy public trust, and as we have seen in Minnesota again in recent days can turn deadly while undermining the ability for local law enforcement to protect and serve. American tax dollars must not be spent funding these unacceptable actions.”
Ohio Senate Democrats then posted the letters and told the public: “Contact your U.S. Senators and tell them to vote NO on funding for ICE’s deadly operations.”
Acton has played the moderate game before. Just last month, she claimed that men being banned from women’s sports was a settled issue in Ohio despite being endorsed by numerous Ohio Democrats who legislatively supported men competing in women’s sports.
Acton cannot credibly promise to work with ICE while every major Ohio Democrat funding, endorsing, and campaigning for her works to defund and run the agency out of the state. Acton is no moderate, and she is lying to Ohio voters.
