Republican Sheriffs Revolt Against Trump's Mass Deportation Policy
FAFO: Judd, a hardcore conservative, is now saying he will ask a Republican-led Congress to do what Republicans in Congress have blocked over the past several decades.
This is a case of Republicans getting exactly what they’ve wanted and only then realizing why sane people have been objecting for decades. Republican sheriffs in Florida are revolting against Trump’s and DeSantis' mass deportation efforts.
It turns out that they object to people being deported who have not committed crimes.
“Florida’s Republican sheriffs want President Donald Trump to end mass deportations of undocumented immigrants who haven’t committed crimes, a striking shift from law enforcement in the nation’s most aggressive anti-undocumented immigration state,” the Florida Phoenix reported Monday.
In fact, this rebellion is lead by a leading conservative who is a “favorite” of Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, and also chair of the four-sheriff and four-police chief council who was chosen by Republican leaders just last year “to shape hardline immigration policy.”
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This Polk County Sheriff’s name is Grady Judd. Speaking Monday at a State Immigration Enforcement Council meeting, Judd is reported by the Florida Phoenix as saying, “While Congress sits on their hands and does nothing about this, we are on the ground floor with this day in and day out — looking in the eyes of these folks that, yes, came here inappropriately. But some came here inappropriately only to do better for themselves and their family.”
The Florida Phoenix rightly called Judd’s comments “remarkable.”
Judd has plans to write a letter to Trump, Speaker Johnson, and the Senate majority leader “urging better guidelines over which undocumented immigrants should be targeted for deportation.”
At least six of eight in the meeting agreed.
“I wholeheartedly agree that Congress, they need to get off their butts and they need to fix it,” Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell agreed. “We’re not out … just raiding business and homes, but, unfortunately, when ICE gets involved, you have the collaterals.”
Judd is quoted at the end as saying, “I don’t mean give [non-criminal immigrants] a free pass. But we already know those people are doing that, and primarily going to Catholic Church … on Sunday. Those are the folks that we need in this country that we embrace.”
And as if he just now learned this, “We are a country of immigrants.”
Oh, wow. This is apparently brand new information… To Republicans.
Is this a good place to insert the fact that not deporting people who have not committed violent crimes was former President Joe Biden’s policy? Too soon?
Just Wait Until Judd Learns Who Stopped Immigration Bills
I probably could have left this here as just a feel-good moment of watching hard-core Republicans see their own beliefs put into action only to slowly realize why they don’t work in a “free” country.
But we do have some business to clear up while we’re here.
Republicans have stopped immigration bills in Congress over the last two decades as they shifted away from comprehensive reforms, which paired legal status for undocumented immigrants with border security, toward an enforcement-first approach.
