Officials arrested an Ohio-based conservative podcaster on behalf of ICE last week, ensnaring a booster of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda into the newly built-out deportation system.
Samuel Sey, 39, co-hosts “The Narrative” podcast, published by the Center for Christian Virtue. He and the organization’s director, Aaron Baer, riff with guests on air about conservative politics and religion.
Officials detained Sey at the Columbus airport. He is currently being held at the Butler County Jail, records show. He has been there since Oct. 21 on hold for ICE.
The exact nature of his detention is unclear. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson in a statement alleged that Sey entered the United States legally in 2022 but overstayed his length of admission by more than four years.
“Sey has no pending applications and accepted voluntary departure. He will remain in ICE custody until removed from the United States,” DHS said.
Sey on his website said he’s a Ghanaian-Canadian who currently lives in Ohio. He moved from Toronto in part to live near his wife’s father. Signal Statewide reached out to Sey’s wife, Anne, via email.
Baer, who is an influential figure in Republican politics, didn’t return a phone call. In a post on social media, he called it a “paper work issue.” Joel Berry, a figure in conservative media, called the matter a “clerical issue.”
Sey’s writings, published on his own blog and in various religious or politically conservative outlets, at times examined immigration policy and Sey’s own experiences.
In February 2025, Sey wrote that he’s “in the middle of his immigration process,” which should wrap up soon.
He wrote the post as an argument that President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda doesn’t contradict Christian teachings. America changing its laws in ways that end his residency here would be “inconvenient – not unjust,” Sey wrote.
“It’s not unChristian to deport illegal immigrants,” he wrote in February 2025. “Christian ethics do not denounce deportations. They demand it. Since illegal immigration is a crime, Christian ethics demand justice. That justice includes deportation.”
Baer, on social media, said neither he nor Sey has changed views on immigration policy since the arrest.
“Just spoke to Sam from the detention facility an hour ago, and I can say for both of us, our view of [immigration enfrocement] is unchanged by this situation,” Baer said.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the county jail, is one of a handful of local law enforcement agencies that has signed contracts with ICE to help carry out its mass deportation operations.
More than 3,600 people that have been held at the Butler County Jail during Trump’s second term have been deported, according to data from the Ohio Immigration Alliance, a critic of the sheriff who runs the jail.