Catching Our Eye News Roundup, Oct. 7, 2026

Every morning in the Ohio Capital Journal’s free newsletter, The Eye-Opener, we round up the news and commentary from across Ohio and around the country and world that is catching our attention. We call this feature Catching Our Eye, republished here.

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Catching Our Eye

• Citizens detained by Trump. ProPublica reports, “506 U.S. Citizens Detained.”

The Trump administration says none of this is happening.

“DHS is NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake.” “There are no ‘indiscriminate’ stops.” Allegations of “racial profiling are disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE.” “The pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force.” “ICE does not zip tie or restrain children.”

But that is precisely what is happening, and at a far larger scale than previously reported. We know because we have once again done what the government hasn’t:

We have tallied and cataloged every case we can find of an immigration agent holding a citizen during the current administration. More than 500 cases. That includes:

• More than a hundred Americans held after agents questioned their citizenship. Nearly all were people of color.

• At least 70 American children and teens detained, some of whom were handcuffed.

• Of the more than 300 Americans we tracked as detained for allegedly assaulting or obstructing agents, we found fewer than half were actually charged in federal court, and many of those cases were dropped or dismissed.

• At least 63 Americans detained while recording.

• 36 Americans held for at least a day without being able to contact a lawyer or their family.

• Roughly a dozen citizens deported, mostly children.

• The ugliest. The New York Times reports, “This High-Profile Campaign May Be the Ugliest in the Country.”

The candidates for Ohio governor have significant policy differences, but the campaign ads have been strikingly personal, with exaggerated portrayals of one candidate as a con artist and the other as a drunk.

• Infant mortality rate. The Marietta Times Editorial Board writes, “Ohio infant mortality rate deserves full attention.”

Ohioans know our state has its challenges, but generally speaking we think of ourselves as better off than those in some other parts of the country — or world. For our youngest and most vulnerable residents, that is not always the case. Given the number of politicians who want us to believe the lives of babies are of the utmost important to them, it is astounding that the infant mortality rate here is STILL considerably above the national average.

Efforts to address the problem have made some progress. We are down to 6.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in Ohio, compared with the national average of 5.36, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• JD Vance defends Trump’s taxpayer-funded ads praising himself. The Hill reports, “Vance argues pro-Trump campaign ads ‘are not partisan.’”

Vice President Vance said the new pro-President Trump television advertisements are “not partisan” amid criticism from both sides of the aisle.

The ads, which cost $20 million of taxpayer money, feature Trump’s voice calling for the defeat of socialism and communism while touting the “largest tax cuts in history” and “reigniting American manufacturing.”

The Trump administration has claimed the ads are public service announcements, not campaign ads.