Ohio Sheriff Richard Jones thinks we're making a mistake not deporting American citizens who also happen to be brown people. He also thinks Donald Trump is just the best ever.
Speaking to Chris Hayes Thursday, Jones declared he'd be just fine deporting American citizens if it meant decreasing the Latino population in his county.
He's taking his cues from Sheriff Arpaio, it seems.
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones on Tuesday announced that he’s assigning one of his detectives to the immigration beat, where the officer will field public complaints and tips about “illegals” and businesses that employ them. On Twitter, Jones urged his constituents to tattle on potential violators.
“We will b [sic] watching you. From the dark to light,” vowed the mustachioed crimefighter, who once suggested tracking immigrants like UPS packages.
Jones has long terrified his county’s Hispanic residents. In 2006, he commissioned a series of billboards alerting citizens, “Hire an illegal. Break the law!” and posted an “illegal aliens here” street sign, with an arrow pointing toward the jail. The rabble-rousing cop also launched a boycott of businesses accused of hiring undocumented workers.
Last year, he made headlines for sending a bill to Mexico’s president demanding a $900,000 reimbursement for 3,000 Mexican nationals held in Butler County’s jail over a decade—a gambit that reportedly put him on a drug cartel hit list.
The sheriff admits to being as relentless on immigration as Trump, whose incendiary warnings of Mexican “rapists,” diseased immigrants and “anchor babies” have only bolstered his conservative fan base.
Trump has given people like this sheriff permission to be as racist and brutal as they please, not just with their language but with their actions. As Donald Trump's message gains more traction with the fearful and the hateful, we'll see more people like this on national television, promoting their message of hate and fear.
That's a conservative message, writ large, and that's what they want to do to this country. Make us all haters and pants-wetters.
