Yes, you read this story's title correctly. In what can best be described as a flying pigs moment for Newsweek, writer Josh Samuel reported on a Trump immigration policy in a generally positive manner even though he used the liberal-approved term, "undocumented immigrants." His February 12 article, DOUBLING AS IMMIGRATION OFFICERS, SHERIFFS APPLAUD TRUMP ORDER, describes a Trump policy to aid in the enforcement of immigration law via local law enforcement.
So before Newsweek is forced to disavow its own article, here are some of the highlights:
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Later this month, federal agents will walk into a windowless, concrete room in the Jackson County jail in East Texas to install a fingerprint machine and a high-speed internet hookup. Once that’s done, Jackson County correctional officers will be able to access federal databases to check whether the people they’ve arrested are undocumented immigrants—and call in the feds if they are.
The Jackson County sheriff applied last year to have his officers cross-designated as federal immigration enforcement officers through a little-known section of the Immigration and Nationality Act law known as 287(g). Late last month, President Trump signed an executive order that aims to revive and beef up the use of 287(g) and give many more local law enforcement agencies the power to act as immigration officers—a controversial move that reflects a larger and ongoing fight over immigration, sanctuary cities and America’s southern border.
The day after Trump inked that executive order and another ordering construction of a border wall, Jackson County signed an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that authorized his officers to interrogate suspected undocumented immigrants, serve federal warrants for immigration violations and detain and transport undocumented immigrants.
“You’re an agent of ICE, you’re wearing two hats. You have an ICE booking station where suspected foreign-born would be fingerprinted,” says Jackson County Sheriff A.J. “Andy” Louderback, who wears a white cowboy hat and carries a Colt .45 pistol. “Listen, if you run a correctional facility here in Texas then you should have 287(g).”
Trump called out the 287(g) program during an August speech at the Phoenix Convention Center that slammed then-President Obama, who scrapped agreements that deputized local law enforcement to do street-level immigration enforcement. Trump told the cheering crowd, “We will expand and revitalize the popular 287(g) partnerships, which will help to identify hundreds of thousands of deportable aliens in local jails that we don't even know about.”
Louderback sides with Trump, at least when it comes to immigration enforcement in jails.
There are few paragraphs listing some of the expected complaints of this program from liberal critics. However, Saul ends on an upbeat note citing law enforcement support for the program:
Trump continued his push for more partnership between local cops and the feds in a speech at the Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Conference on February 8. “You know the illegals, you know 'em by their first names, you know 'em by their nicknames,” he said, encouraging his audience of local law enforcement leaders to work closely with his DHS head. “Call Secretary [John] Kelly’s representatives and we’ll get them out of our country and bring them back where they came from.”
That’s surely what Louderback, back in Jackson County, wants to do. The sheriff oversees a staff of about 50 people, including 15 in the jail and 11 who patrol the streets and ranch roads in his corner of East Texas. He estimates his deputies arrest about a dozen “foreign-born inmates” each month who will now be checked for their immigration background. “This is the way the government should address criminal aliens in our state,” he says. “This is what we should be doing. This is who we are.”
A check of the readers' comments reveals that public support for Trump's immigration policies is very strong outside of the liberal bubble.
