Border State Sheriffs Push Back Against Trump’s Deportation Plan, Citing Legal and Community Concerns
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President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers have been seeking support from county sheriffs in border states to assist with the administration’s proposed mass deportation campaign. However, several sheriffs are publicly refusing to get involved, citing legal constraints, strained resources, and community trust.
According to a report in WIRED magazine, Trump’s top immigration advisers, including Tom Homan and Stephen Miller, have been in talks with far-right sheriffs who are interested in collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Still, the initiative faces significant hurdles.
Yuma County, Arizona Sheriff Leon Wilmot highlighted the legal limits of such efforts, pointing to a Supreme Court precedent. “[T]hat’s not our realm of responsibility,” Wilmot explained. “If we wanted to do immigration law, we would go work for Border Patrol.”
Currently, ICE’s 287(g) program allows local law enforcement to collaborate with ICE on immigration enforcement. However, sheriffs themselves are not authorized to detain or round up undocumented immigrants directly. Participation in the program remains limited—just 125 out of 3,081 sheriff’s offices nationwide have signed up, in part due to the lack of federal funding.
Tom Mack, a retired sheriff leading the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, has been lobbying for sheriffs’ involvement, even coordinating with Homan. Yet Sheriff Wilmot dismissed Mack’s influence, stating, “No one listens to [Mack]. He hasn’t been a sheriff in a long time… and he pushes his own agenda.”
Other sheriffs are standing firm in their refusal to cooperate. Santa Cruz County, Arizona Sheriff David Hathaway made it clear he would reject any calls to assist the Trump administration.
“I’m not going to cooperate, because 95 percent of the residents of the town where I live, where my county is, are Hispanic,” Hathaway said. “I’m not going to go checking the documents of practically every single person in my county… because that would create distrust between law enforcement and all the people in my community.”
Even some of Trump’s allies in law enforcement are resisting the plan. Livingston County, Michigan Sheriff Mike Murphy, a Trump supporter, emphasized his local priorities. “I still have a county to do police work in,” Murphy stated. “Just because the president says, ‘Hey, go out and round them up,’ that is not all of a sudden gonna move to the top of my priority list.”
Texas sheriffs, including Val Verde County’s Joe Frank Martinez and Brewster County’s Ronny Dodson, also voiced concerns. Dodson warned that jailing migrants could “break” county law enforcement and added, “I’m not gonna let the government tell me what to do in my job.”
As Trump’s advisers push for a robust deportation plan, resistance from sheriffs underscores the challenges of enforcing such an initiative on the local level.
