Far-Right Sheriffs Want to Carry Out Donald Trump's Mass Deportations. That’s Not PossibleNEWS | 18 December 2024A growing cohort of extremist and far-right sheriffs are vocally endorsing president-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations. They promise unquestioning loyalty and say they stand ready to take part in a sweeping round-up of undocumented migrants from the first day of his new term in office—despite admitting that they have no idea of what such a plan might entail.
But a WIRED investigation—including interviews with sheriffs and experts, and a review of reports detailing the fiscal cost of carrying out the administration’s claims of deporting up to a million undocumented migrants in a year—shows that such a scenario is virtually impossible.
“It's synthetic hyperventilation,” Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association, tells WIRED. “It's all designed to scare people, and it won't happen like that, period.”
Despite the administration sharing no details of how it will carry out the mass deportations that Trump and others in his team have promised, sheriffs across the country have been publicly declaring their willingness to do whatever the president-elect and his “border czar,” Tom Homan, demand of them.
"I absolutely, positively will support that very much,” Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, from Maryland’s Frederick County, told the Baltimore Sun this week. “It's going to be a mass deportation of criminals.”
“We’re going to be in the business again,” Sheriff Richard Jones from Butler County, Ohio, told the Wall Street Journal last month, adding that he was preparing his jails to house ICE detainees again. “We have space available, and they’re going to need space from day one.”
But the loudest voice pushing to have sheriffs on the front lines of the deportation effort belongs to Richard Mack, a former sheriff who now heads up the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). He tells WIRED he has been in contact with Homan in recent weeks.
“We discussed trying to get the sheriffs involved [in mass deportations] and he kind of liked that idea,” Mack tells WIRED, adding that the pair have been exchanging voice mails and text messages.
WIRED was unable to verify Mack’s claims, which he’s repeated on dozens of right-wing podcasts and talk shows—including several appearances on Steve Bannon’s influential War Room podcast—over the past few weeks, adding at every opportunity that he was willing to step up and play a role in the new administration.Author: Tim Marchman. David Gilbert. Tess Owen. Makena Kelly. Zeyi Yang. Boone Ashworth. Leah Feiger. Source
