Cincinnati immigration attorney Trisha Chatterjee had a problem. She needed to ask U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement how best to submit paperwork for her clients detained at the Butler County Jail.
Our media partners at the Cincinnati Enquirer say that after days without a response, she finally got through to an ICE officer who said he could give her the phone number for someone who could help.
Chatterjee said the number was for a Columbus-area Taco Bell.
“For the very first time, finally somebody answered me and I was genuinely so excited to have somebody who was going to help us and give us some information,” she told The Enquirer. “So, to get a Taco Bell phone number instead was definitely disheartening.”
Chatterjee shared her story on TikTok, where it has more than 38,000 views.
ICE did not respond to The Enquirer’s emailed questions. Here’s what Chatterjee said happened.
ICE, Taco Bell and a viral TikTok
Chatterjee has practiced immigration law in Greater Cincinnati and Dayton for two years. Currently, she said she has at least eight clients detained at the Butler County Jail in Hamilton, Ohio which has a contract to hold people with immigration violations for ICE.
Chatterjee wanted to submit a “stay of removal” for some of her clients. This protection prevents the Department of Homeland Security from deporting immigrants who are actively pursuing legal status or humanitarian protection, or are challenging their removal order. Homeland Security accepts or rejects these applications.
“We have a number of people who are detained right now who have cases pending before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or before the court,” Chatterjee said. “They’ve got immigration proceedings already pending.”
Applications for a stay of removal have to be submitted in person to the regional ICE field office. For people with immigration cases in Ohio, that office is in Detroit.
Chatterjee, who is based in Greater Cincinnati, was hoping she could submit the applications another way. She said she called and emailed ICE and the Detroit field office, asking if she could instead submit these applications at a closer ICE office in Blue Ash, but got no response.
She was given another ICE phone number from the Butler County Jail, which she said has connected her with helpful agents in the past.
The ICE agent who picked up the phone gave her another number to call, Chatterjee said. That number went to a Taco Bell in Columbus.
“I called and they answered and they said, ‘Hello, Taco Bell?’ And I said, ‘Taco Bell?’ And the guy who was working said, ‘Yeah, Taco Bell. Ma’am, you called me,” Chatterjee recalled.
It’s not clear if this was a one-time prank or something repeatedly done by the ICE agent. A Taco Bell employee answered the phone when The Enquirer called the number, but hung up when asked if they had received other calls from immigration lawyers.
Chatterjee felt it was a prank this ICE officer had played before because of how quickly he provided the phone number She did not know where the agent was based.
“I was in such disbelief,” she said. “So, I called the ICE officer back, just really frustrated with what had just happened. He says, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I was trying to lighten the mood and make you laugh.’”
“Like, there’s no lightening the mood right now,” she said.
Chatterjee asked for the agent’s supervisor, who said he would file a report about the incident. She said she never saw any proof that a report was filed.
The Enquirer emailed the ICE spokesperson and the Detroit field office, and requested any reports related to the prank.
