In contrast to Democratic officials from around the country who have promised to protect illegal aliens, a couple sheriffs have come forward and offered to assist with mass deportations after President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.
For Richard Jones, the sheriff of Butler County, Ohio, such assistance is nothing new. In fact, Jones, a 71-year-old Republican who was just elected to a sixth term, had partnered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump.
He paused that partnership during the Biden administration but says, “Now, we’re back.”
‘Sheriffs …, unlike police chiefs, typically have no boss beside voters.’
“We’re preparing cells and space as we speak,” Jones told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Day after the election, we started preparing.”
Sheriff Chuck Jenkins (R) of Frederick County, Maryland, expressed similar sentiments to the Wall Street Journal. “I’m willing to support the president 100%,” Jenkins, 68, said, referring to Trump. “I want to do more, within the law.”
Jenkins said he’s motivated to help Trump after the disastrous immigration-related policies implemented since Biden became president.
“You have people with felony assault charges they’re not putting in custody,” he said.
“Listen, they’re here illegally,” Jenkins continued. “They shouldn’t be here. You know, I look as an American citizen that we can’t sustain this. It’s not tenable for us to continue to allow people to come into this country by the hundreds of thousands or millions.”
Jones said he has reserved between 250 and 300 beds — about one-third of the bed space at Butler County Jail — for illegal aliens. The rest of the facility, he said, will be for “local” offenders. “We take care of our local prisoners first,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“I get asked, ‘Well, people that are here [legally] in the United States, they drunk-drive, they kill people, they rape people. What are you gonna say about that?’ And I say, I got enough to deal with my homegrown criminals. I don’t need other criminals from other countries to deal with,” Jones explained.
Should the bed space allotted for illegal aliens prove inadequate, Jones said he’ll begin transferring the illegal alien inmates to other facilities.
Meanwhile, a soft stance on illegal immigration may have cost at least one Democratic sheriff her job. Sheriff Kristin Graziano — who, according to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), made Charleston County, South Carolina, a sanctuary county and who has allowed “criminal illegal immigrants to roam free” — lost her re-election bid last month to Republican Carl Ritchie.
For its part, the Wall Street Journal seemed to lament the resurgence of Trump-supporting sheriffs. The outlet called Trump’s deportation plans “unclear” and likely not “practical.”
Moreover, the outlet disparaged American citizens in an attempt to disprove Trump’s assertions about illegal aliens. “[Trump] has claimed these newer arrivals commit crime at high levels, take jobs and drive up housing costs,” the outlet reported. “Available data show immigrants commit crime at lower levels than U.S. citizens, and analysts say they fill low-paying jobs many Americans eschew.”
The outlet also called voter fraud committed by noncitizens “exceedingly rare.”
The Journal even seemed to have misgivings about the “political” nature of the sheriff office, handwringing that as elected officials, sheriffs answer only to the people in their community and not another government official. “Sheriffs …, unlike police chiefs, typically have no boss beside voters,” it said.
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