It was something that really began to happen when the United States decided that it would interlock the immigration system with the criminal legal system. So some people call it the criminal immigration system, which is not a term that I coined. It's something that immigration law experts coined.
But when Congress passed a certain series of laws in the 1980s and 90s, what they wanted to do was create a system in which people who were accused of crimes, particularly at the time, drug crimes, would be able to be immediately deported in a way that was basically faster. So they didn't have to be convicted. So normally, if you're accused of a crime, you have a right to a trial, then you might be convicted or acquitted, or you might plea out.
But if you are determined to be undocumented, you can actually be put into deportation proceedings before anyone brings you to trial. So you just are arrested and charged, and you can go immediately into deportation proceedings. And it turned out that this was a pretty effective way for police to interact with the immigration system.
And sheriffs became a lynch point originally because they run county jails.
So county jails are kind of the first stop if you're arrested. If you are unfortunate enough to be arrested, you will go through the county jail, at which point they take your ID, your fingerprints, right?
They take a variety of information. And sheriffs kind of became really useful because they were in the jail already, so they could interview people, ask them where they were from, ask them if they had proof of citizenship, and then help ICE put them into deportation proceedings. And alongside that, sheriffs were also able to make some money by housing people awaiting deportation in their jails.
That's also the benefit for them. The federal government houses about 25% of immigrants in detention in county jails right now. And they pay these sheriffs a per diem.
So they get paid sort of per day to keep people in their jails. And it's one of the ways that sheriffs are able to use that jail kind of as a political tool, right, to make money for their county.
So under Trump, two things happened. One was that anti-immigration groups, so I mentioned the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR. That was a group that was already in existence.
They are an anti-immigrant group. And they began to email sheriffs, especially sheriffs that they knew were kind of constitutional sheriffs or in the far right sheriff atmosphere and say, hey, would you like to help the Trump administration deport more people? And many of them said, sure.
And so using this anti-immigrant group, the Trump administration recruited more sheriffs to join a program called 287G. And 287G is a federal program that essentially deputizes sheriffs and their deputies to act as immigration agents. So under Trump, many, many more sheriffs joined this 287G program.
Now, the 287G program is a bit interesting because it doesn't include any funding for the sheriffs, but it is something that sheriffs used to say that they were tough on immigration.
‘Constitutionalists’ manifest how deeply extremist authoritarianism has infected law enforcement at all levels
David Neiwert at The Spyhop:
Keith Swank is the new sheriff of Pierce County, Washington state’s second-largest. Besides believing that God told him to run for office, he also calls himself a “constitutional sheriff.”
So it was perfectly in character for Swank, testifying about a bill in the state Legislature to bar most law enforcement from using masks, to register his defiance of state authorities.
“Just for the record, my deputies don’t wear masks,” Swank told the legislators. “But once you pass this law that they can’t, I will not only allow them, but I will encourage them to do so, just to see what you do.
“I don’t recognize your authority to impose these controls over me.”
[...]
People like Swank call themselves “constitutionalists.” It’s a benign-sounding label that journalists often just skip right over. But “constitutionalists” are devoted to the founding documents in the same way that the insurrectionist “Patriot” militiamen are “patriotic” rather than the seditionists they actually are.
In reality, being a “constitutional sheriff” means that Keith Swank is a far-right extremist with ties to insurrectionists (especially Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers), white nationalists, Christian nationalists, and election denialists. Nice work, voters.
These “constitutionalists” believe conspiracist far-right theories that the sheriff of each county is the supreme law of the land, capable of overruling federal and state laws as well as the judiciary itself in determining which laws are “constitutional.”
The underlying claim is that county sheriffs have superior status by virtue of being elected—even though in fact the U.S. Constitution makes no mention of local sheriffs or their powers at any point. This status, they believe, enables sheriffs and their deputies to ignore all federal or state laws they choose, and to only force local laws of their choosing. They are also free to ignore court rulings if they choose.
In reality, the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2) stipulates that the federal Constitution and its laws are the “supreme Law of the Land”. It ensures that federal law takes precedence over conflicting state and local laws. But so-called “constitutionalists” claim that the Constitution’s power doesn’t extend to local law enforcement—a claim that has failed every time it has been tested in the courts.
The wellspring of these ideas is the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, ex-Arizona sheriff Richard Mack’s nationwide organization that promotes these groundless theories, which extremists like Cliven and Ammon Bundy have leveraged to create armed standoffs with federal officers.
CSPOA first gained traction nationally when it became a loud faction of the Tea Party movement, especially through its close association with Rhodes and the Oath Keepers, who themselves loudly promoted “constitutionalist” political theories and talking points. Mack appeared at over 70 Tea Party events, telling audiences that they could save America by electing sheriffs aligned with their ideology.
The core of Mack’s ideology is drawn from the work of W. Cleon Skousen, a leading light of the radical right in the 1960s and ‘70s, famous for his red-baiting books and speeches.
[...]
Their political alignment with Trump’s ICE secret-police force is nearly absolute, both in terms of their desire to resist losing the ability of officers to mask as well as their agreement with MAGA’s Nativist immigration agenda. Songer complained to the Puyallup audience that Washington attorney general Nick Brown had placed him under investigation for violating a state law barring local cooperation with ICE. Songer claimed such laws were “unconstitutional.”
“I will call ICE anytime I feel like calling ICE,” Songer declared, openly defying state laws. Songer added that if Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan came to the state, “he could ride shotgun and we’ll go out and pick up some illegals.”
This kind of defiance of the normative power structure in American democracy is a major feature of the MAGA assault on our institutions, and its underlying attitude of utter disrespect has infected law-enforcement operations across the nation, from federal agencies like ICE to the sheriff’s departments in multiple locales, both rural and—is in Swank’s case—urban precincts.
Rather than flee the associations with radical extremists and flaming bigots, they embrace them defiantly and dare anyone to hold them accountable. Remember when policer officers were exposed as members of the Oath Keepers after Jan. 6—and then unblinkingly doubled down and insisted that there was nothing wrong with belonging to an organization whose leader faced trial for (and was later convicted of) seditious conspiracy. CSPOA-affiliated Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County, Arizona, said that he “appreciate[s] those guys standing up for the rule of law, the Constitution and freedom.”
He also defended the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. “Just because somebody was there doesn’t necessarily mean they’re guilty,” he said, adding: “I guarantee you [the rioters] are very loving, Christian people. They just happen to support President Trump a lot.”
All of these officers are revealing their own extremism in part because they don’t see “patriot” beliefs as extremist—even though such essential tenets as the view that sheriffs are the supreme law of the land with power superseding federal and state authorities, as well as the notion that the Second Amendment nullifies any and all gun regulation, are readily debunked nonsense whose only believers are right-wing extremists.
The far-right “constitutional sheriffs” movement has taken over a disturbing amount of county sheriffs’ offices and local police departments.
Communities have been, and continue to be, manipulated.
This likely won’t get better any time soon.
Public health isn’t about a niche group with special or secret practices, and community care shouldn’t be gate kept away from people who for whatever reason haven’t been afforded information or opportunity. But there seems to have been a concerted effort to “other” people who avoid getting sick, and even to get people to other themselves - by pushing the immunocompromised and the careful to the so-called fringe. People, support groups, or organizations formed around public health, disability, patient advocacy, and generally avoiding covid, are lambasted as somehow bad and strange, even though these are essentially the interests of most people.
Jay Bhattacharya, of Great Barrington Declaration fame, is Trump’s pick to lead the NIH. People are rightly concerned that he’s going to move us into a Dark Age by squelching research. But this is a person with designs on social engineering. He has signaled that he wants to make up the media landscape and the political landscape in his vision. (And probably that of the Brownstone Institute, which backs him with big money.)
Tweet by Number 99 @MmeBlackBalloon Aug 18, 2023 "Still COVIDing" regional FB groups use social media to enable intentional communities that sequester "clean" people from the rest of the current world. They have 10's of 1000's of members whose identities are based on social isolation & fear of disease as markers of status. IMAGE SCREENSHOTS OF FACEBOOK Still COVIDing, Bay Area Edition Private 1.2K members 10 posts a day This is a group for COVID conscious individuals and families in the San Fran... Join Still Coviding, Young Adults Edition Private 620 members-2 posts a day This is a space for young adults who are still taking Covid precautions to co... Join Still coviding: adapting to the new reality Private 1.3K members. 5 posts a day This is a group for those who are trying to stay safe but are a bit more 'out ther... Join Still Coviding, Still Trusting & Believing In God, in unbelie... Private 315 members 2 posts a day This group is a safe place for believers of God who are still taking precautions a.... Join. REPLY by Jay Bhattacharya @DrJBhattacharya Aug 18, 2023 Meanwhile, at the command of the government, FB suppressed or eliminated vax injury groups, anti lockdown posts, and the GBD. REPLY by Number 99 @MmeBlackBalloon I wonder how much influence these kinds of people had on public policy and government perceptions of appropriate actions? Like very which came first, chicken or egg. Not that government don't always try to get away with censorship but having backing from masses helps. All bad. 1:13 AM 3 Aug 19, 2023 1,132 Views
The idea that Still Coviding Facebook groups had influence over public policy and government is laughable. I myself wrote 200 postcards to Biden in the last 4 years and almost nothing I wrote about was addressed, and none of my pandemic concerns were at all addressed. Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 on a robust pandemic response plan that was actually quite good. Once in office he and the Democrats who had defended the disabled and the high risk turned their backs on us and said: Return to Office butts in seats downtown for the economy. And the Biden administration pretty much embraced natural herd immunity, abandoned the pandemic measures he campaigned on, and additionally, under pressure from Republicans, the economic mitigation measures ended under Biden. I don’t know why they even needed Trump considering the Great Barrington Declaration has become the status quo of most nations frankly - except of course for the part where they “focus protection” on the vulnerable! That’s nowhere in sight as infants and the elderly have been totally hung out to dry along with the disabled high risk and immunocompromised.
MedPage Today - Nursing Homes Fell Behind on Vaccinating Patients for COVID — Billing complexities and patient skepticism partially to blame by Sarah Boden, KFF Health News December 5, 2024 Loveland has seen patients and coworkers at the nursing home where she works die from the viral disease. Now she has a new worry: bringing home the coronavirus and unwittingly infecting her infant daughter, Maya, born in May. Loveland's maternity leave ended in late June, when Maya wasn't yet 2 months old. Infants cannot be vaccinated against COVID until they are 6 months old. Children younger than that suffer the highest rates of hospitalization of any age group except people 75 or older. Between her patients' complex medical needs and their close proximity to one another, COVID continues to pose a grave threat to Loveland's nursing home -- and to the 15,000 other certified nursing homes in the U.S. where some 1.2 million people live. Despite this risk, a CDC report published in April found that just four in 10 nursing home residents in the U.S. received an updated COVID vaccine in the winter of 2023-24.
The truth is that the Pentagon under the Trump administration perpetrated an anti-vax propaganda campaign, and under Biden, that campaign continued for at least a while. But not only that, there was someone who I was shown evidence that they were listed as an NIH contractor in 2021 and who operated on social media as a pro-vax influencer who posted prolific amounts of dubious “vax, unmask, and relax” content - clearly going well beyond promoting vaccination, and actually to exist to calm nerves about going “back to normal” seemingly for the sake of The Economy, or perhaps to at least to calm the public to settle things down. They literally told people in April 2021 that it was absolutely impossible for vaccinated people to transmit the virus to each other, when no such evidence existed at that time nor since. When I say this influencer is prolific, people who analyzed the posts of this person’s social media account, told me that it appeared they were doing it as a full time job with overtime, or that the account was being staffed by multiple people in shifts. Today this influencer account can be found hyping (as if it’s just another exciting breakthrough), among other studies on covid remedies, a junk covid product that is being hyped by a number of other outlets in a PR blitz.
The point is that we’re living in The Internet of Fakes, and government entities and big industries are documented as having been known to hire operatives and provocateurs and even to infiltrate social groups.
But Jay Bhattacharya thought it was vulnerable people, often immunocompromised, who were “silencing” him, and this elite has silenced his way to the Trump administration. He’s entering the halls of power with his assertions that regular people just trying to survive are enemies trying to silence and take away power from Jay Bhattacharya. Even if it’s totally made up, or perhaps because it’s made up, this orientation around covid is so disturbing.
Jay Bhattacharya @DrJBhattacharya Aug 18, 2023 “Meanwhile, at the command of the government, FB suppressed or eliminated vax injury groups, anti lockdown posts, and the GBD.” 9 replies, 41 retweets, 366 hearts, 12K views.
Considering that every accusation is a confession with these people, I think there’s good cause for concern.
Mother Jones - November 26, 2024 - He Rose to Fame as a Covid Contrarian, and Trump Wants Him to Be NIH Head - Jay Bhattacharya is outspoken about public health restrictions and sees censorship on social media. - Kiera Butler At a conference hosted by the anti-lockdown group the Brownstone Institute in November 2021, nearly a year after the rollout of the Covid vaccines, Bhattacharya lamented that public health had become a tool “for authoritarian power” and “to enforce the biosecurity state.”
We know that shadowbanning is indeed real. But ironically the people who complain the loudest are the biggest of hypocrites when it comes to the “free speech” issue. So what do you think Jay Bhattacharya intends to do with money he will have at the NIH to splash around to contractors who can hire influencers online?
Many pandemic related groups today are sadly largely places where the members are used as a captive audience of eyeballs given to vendors by admins who’ve consolidated power. They’re too often filled with MLM stuff and target marketing of pseudoscience covid products. People join groups for support and are offered opportunities to buy expensive products with no good evidence of safety or efficacy. People join advocacy groups thinking they’re getting involved in activism, only to find that they’re expected to hype someone’s project on social media, and help them gain attention to get funding from some cryptocurrency source or other. And that’s along with an endless parade of infiltration by trolls, operatives, reporters, scammers, spammers. And many already suspect the presence of state actors in these spaces. But these social groups form because people, especially people at high risk who must avoid infections, have sought out people in similar situations when their families and friends were convinced to abandon safety or any care or concern for the high risk, in order to prop up the economy - by both political parties and both the Trump and the Biden administrations - because both parties prioritize profits over people and businesses over constituents. The most vulnerable people are already extremely marginalized, and sometimes harassed. People avoiding covid have to avoid almost everything, especially in the winter. Online clubs are far from perfect, but the last thing we need is the further fringe-ifying of communities. Especially when social media seems as toxic as ever, and the same problems exist in all social media to some extent. Social media is a way to meet people, sure, in the same way you can meet new people in a tavern, but it’s an absolutely terrible place to try and maintain real connections or accomplish anything within that space. “Likes” are not substantial, let’s be honest. And now, lockdown revisionists and anti-vax posse vigilantes will target this population who has no defenders in positions of power, possibly with state sanctioned violence, or at best, be given a harder time than is already the case.
People talk about media and journalists “obeying in advance” nowadays, but if you care about having doctors mask and not spread their covid or flu to cancer patients, or even if you just care about vaccination - like me you’ve likely been seeing journalists obey in advance to authoritarianism for ages now. And probably also see tons of evidence people don’t even know that updated covid vaccines even exist.
lisa725 2d ago Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 10:36:14 PM EST Honestly I had no idea there was one. Is it like the Flu shot now? My doctor didn't say anything about it at my annual. She asked about the flu shot. That's it. I have gotten the shot 4 times and I would get it again. Reply grulepper 2d ago. It's a yearly like the flu shot, odd your doc didn't bring it up. Reply Key-Wallaby-9276 22h ago My doc nor my kids doc did either Reply the-names-are-gone 16h ago Yeah it is odd that the medical professional with a decade of schooling and however many years of real world experience didn't see the need to ask
I’m concerned that this situation won’t be confined to making vaccines less available, or even outlawing them, as there has been talk of having county sheriffs deputize anti-vaxxers to do raids on public health officials and others. When people are given power of the state and a stamp of approval on going after enemies, it can coerce people to act improperly or invite opportunists. What’s going on is nothing to take lightly.
VA Democrats Threatened Pensions of LEOs in 2A Sanctuaries
VA Democrats Threatened Pensions of LEOs in 2A Sanctuaries
VA Democrats threatened to take the pensions of Law Enforcement officers who refuse to enforce unconstitutional gun laws. They also denied a 3% raise to law enforcement officers who stand for the 2nd amendment. That’s not all they are doing, there are two other bills pending that have definitions that place ordinary people in jeopardy of prison.
Sheriffs associated with the anti-democratic “constitutional sheriff” movement — which falsely asserts that sheriffs represent the highest l
Payton Armstrong at MMFA:
Sheriffs associated with the anti-democratic “constitutional sheriff” movement — which falsely asserts that sheriffs represent the highest law of the land — have used their positions to investigate baseless election conspiracy theories across the country, including in key swing states.
Many of these so-called constitutional sheriffs have also used right-wing media appearances to spread the movement’s talking points, claiming that the country’s 3,000 sheriffs “have awesome power” to enforce their views. They've also spread misinformation about voter fraud, fearmongered about migrants coming across the border, and vowed not to enforce federal or state gun control laws or COVID-19 mandates.
Media Matters found that a dozen sheriffs connected to the constitutional sheriff movement’s leading groups have been featured in right-wing media in recent years, including 6 sheriffs who have appeared on Fox News at least 103 times combined since January 1, 2020. Many of the sheriffs have also repeatedly appeared on One America News and other far-right outlets.
So-called “constitutional sheriffs” are part of a growing movement falsely claiming they have ultimate authority to decide whether a law is constitutional
The constitutional sheriff movement falsely asserts that sheriffs represent the highest law of the land, answering only to the U.S. Constitution and superseding any state or federal authority, including the president. The Southern Poverty Law Centers says that sheriffs who adhere to this ideology “are under the false impression that their role as sheriffs allows them to circumvent the structure of checks and balances put in place by the Constitution.” SPLC also argues that the movement is “actively damaging the nation’s rule of law and attempting to shape the U.S. into a country where fringe law enforcement officers determine what human, civil and property rights they will enforce.” According to States United Democracy Center, “many aspects of sheriffs’ roles are controlled by state constitutions and/or statutory law, including their duties, compensation, terms of elections, and procedures for removal.” [Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 6/25/24, 6/6/22; States United Democracy Center, 10/4/22]
Two leading groups promoting the constitutional sheriff movement’s ideology are the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) and Protect American Now (PAN). CSPOA and PAN — which were formed by former Graham County, Arizona, Sheriff Richard Mack and current Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Mark Lamb, respectively — teach sheriffs that they have the authority to exert more control over the voting process and the border, and they encourage sheriffs to refuse to enforce gun control laws or COVID-19 mandates they deem unconstitutional. [Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 6/25/24; The Washington Post, 11/2/21]
CSPOA and PAN have increasingly turned their focus toward promoting election denial, such as urging sheriffs to investigate supposed voter fraud. During the 2022 midterms, CSPOA encouraged sheriffs to closely monitor for voter fraud, and ahead of the 2024 election, the group is reportedly urging sheriffs to insert themselves into more aspects of the voting process. CSPOA and PAN have worked with other extremist groups to monitor drop boxes, including the QAnon-linked election denial organization True the Vote. [Talking Points Memo, 4/18/24, 8/8/24; The New York Times, 7/25/22; The Guardian, 8/17/22]
There is reportedly growing acceptance of the constitutional sheriff movement’s ideology among sheriffs across the country. Since 2018, at least 69 sheriffs out of 3,000 nationwide have either been identified as members of CSPOA or publicly supported it, according to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. But CSPOA’s ideology may be more pervasive: A Marshall Project survey of over 500 of the country’s sheriffs found that more than 48% of respondents agreed that their authority within their own counties supersedes that of the state or federal government. Additionally, CSPOA has “continued to recruit sheriffs into their group and its related ideology through events targeting law enforcement, an online television show and membership in their association.” [Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 6/25/24; The Associated Press, 8/21/23; Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, 10/20/22; The Marshall Project, 10/18/22]
Media Matters For America takes a look at how “constitutional sheriffs” use right-wing media outlet appearances to promote and grow the extreme movement that puts the county sheriff as the highest authority in their county, ahead of state and federal law.
Covid-19 Shutdowns: Constitutional Sheriffs vs Political Sheriffs
There’s trouble brewing in law enforcement around the nation, as Sheriffs begin to take sides in the COVID-19 shutdowns. It has grown into Constitutional Sheriffs vs Political Sheriffs.
An example is Michigan, where numerous lawsuits are pending against Governor Gretchen Whitmer over her egregious shutdown order that has thousands of her own constituents angry. There are several Sheriffs who are…
Are the masked bandits in plain clothes that refuse to show badges even actual trained law enforcement hired through civil service?
Sheriffs are deputizing random citizens they know. Then ICE is deputizing sheriff's deputies. Maybe that’s why some of the “ICE” agents that are invading homes and seizing people are dressed in “plain clothes”?
Is your local county sheriff making deputies defacto ICE agents? The answer is maybe, because it's happening in Bucks County Pennsylvania which is 2,000 miles from the Mexico border, and not close to Canada, nor even too close to the coastline. Chloe Humbert Apr 29, 2025 Some of these county sheriffs have been deputizing vigilantes, just rando pals who are members of the public. This was all happening without much fuss being made about it apparently. So maybe we shouldn't be surprised.
