He says the Mayor is ‘on the wrong side of this issue.’
Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins
Frederick, Md (KM) The announcement last month by Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor that he will protect the rights of immigrants, and not provide assistance to federal agencies taking part in President-elect Trump’s plans for mass deportations of undocumented or illegal immigrants doesn’t set well with Sheriff Chuck Jenkins. :”I think the Mayor is absolutely on the wrong side of this issue from the outset. He has no right or no authority to even try to intercede or block or stop the federal government from coming in and doing their job which is to target criminals and remove criminals from Frederick County,” says Jenkins.
Mayor O’Connor also said the Frederick Police would not provide assistance to federal officials in any mass deportation effort in the city. Jenkins says the Sheriff’s Office does not have the authority to make arrests based on immigration violations. But it will assist federal law enforcement agencies in this effort if requested. “What I would say if we’re asked to support in any other way like transport of prisoners, maybe areas to work out of, logical support in any way, I will be glad to do that and I will do that,” he says.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office has participated in the federal 287g program where personnel at the Adult Detention Center check on the immigration status of suspects arrested by area police. Jenkins says that program will not be affected by any mass deportations.
Sheriff Jenkins says these mass deportations will not affect immigrants who are abiding by the law. He says it’s only for those who have committed criminal offenses. The Sheriff asked this question for Mayor O’Connor. “How would you feel to sit down in a room with the parents of a Lakin Riley, or Rachel Moran or Sarah Roop, young women who have been brutalized, and murdered and raped by illegal aliens in this country illegally. How do you even justify this position,” Jenkins asked.
Like many Americans, Sheriff Jenkins says he too believes the nation has a broken immigration system that needs to be fixed. “There’s the border security which we all agree the border needs to be shut down and needs to be secured completely,” he said. Then there’s the “deportation of criminals which is part of what the 287g program is,” he said.
Jenkins says shutting down the border will not interfere with the normal commerce and tourism which takes place between the US and Mexico. “What the President wants to do by building the wall is not to impact trade and goods going back and forth,”: he says. “But It’s the shut down the criminal aliens and the criminal element coming across to this country. That’s what’s bringing in the fentanyl.”
In his first term as President between 2017-21, Donald Trump wanted to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
But Jenkins also says the process of becoming an American citizens needs some changes. “Immigration process does need to be fixed. It needs to be looked at. There does need to be a way to become legal citizens more effectively and quickly,” he says.
By Kevin McManus