An Ohio sheriff has penned a letter to President Donald Trump requesting that he send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to his county and to crack down on businesses that hire undocumented immigrants.
According to WKRC, on Mar. 30, Butler County sheriff Richard Jones published a public letter to President Trump, commending him for his immigration policies and asking his administration to crack down businesses that hire undocumented workers, .
“The American citizens are tired of dealing with this issue… tired of losing jobs to companies who are willing to hire illegals and pay them far less wages,” Jones wrote.
The sheriff called for President Trump to send ICE agents to Butler County to help close down businesses that hire undocumented immigrants.
“We need to get these businesses shut down that hire illegals to fill vacant positions… If we stop businesses from hiring illegal aliens, more Americans can get and maintain work,” Jones added.
The Butler County sheriff has been a vocal supporter of President Trump, having spoken during a campaign event for the president in July 2016.
In December 2016, Jones incited controversy on social media when he took letters he had received from county residents expressing their disapproval of President Trump and burning them in a bonfire.
According to The Washington Times, in a video that has since gone viral, Jones was seen burning the feedback of his constituents and said “You see I got a lot of letters to burn. I’m going to be burning letters all night.”
The Ohio sheriff has been a proponent of President Trump’s immigration policies of more deportations and stricter border control.
WLWT reports that Jones also said “Most people want to come to the United States, and most of them are good. But there’s always those few that come here, and we can’t be fools and just open our borders to everybody.”
Jones has suggested sending six of his local deputies to receive ICE training so that they can detain and deport undocumented immigrants in a federal capacity.
Gabriela Mendoza Thibeau, an immigration attorney in Butler County, says that her clients have become increasingly anxious since President Trump assumed office, fearing intensified deportation enforcement.
“They [want to] know — is there anything that they can do to put themselves in a better position in the event that they would be apprehended and deported?” Thibeau told the Oxford Patch. “[There is] confusion, chaos.”
Currently, federal policy has favored deportations of undocumented workers over financially penalizing their employers.
“It’s always been easier to go after the workers,” former commissioner Doris Meissner of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service told the ABA Journal. “But is that ny more than just counting numbers? Does that actually change the basic magnet effect on jobs? No.”
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