Sheriffs push Trump’s message of ‘migrant crime’ with little evidence

WASHINGTON – Richard Jones is one of the most outspoken sheriffs in America when it comes to illegal immigration and crime, echoing themes raised by Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign as the Republican tries to win back the White House .

Jones has been sheriff for twenty years in Republican Butler County, Ohio, where Trump running mate JD Vance was born and raised. Usually dressed in a cowboy hat and sporting a thick white mustache, he regularly appears on conservative news media to criticize Democrats’ border policies.

Jones said crimes committed by immigrants in the U.S. illegally burden local taxpayers with millions of dollars in costs for arresting, jailing and processing them in court. But he admits that a basic fact is overshadowed by the bombastic rhetoric: He has no evidence that immigrants in his country are more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

“They’re not committing anything at a faster rate,” he said in an interview. “It’s just an extra group that shouldn’t be here.”

Numerous studies have shown that immigrants are no more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

Trump has put what he calls “migrant crime” at the forefront of his campaign as he tries to defeat Democrat Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election. The former president regularly cites cases of women and girls allegedly killed in the country illegally by immigrants and has embraced even darker rhetoric in recent weeks.

Trump’s message has been amplified by sheriffs and other local law enforcement officials across the country, including some who have appeared at his campaign events, lending legitimacy to his claims.

Reuters contacted 12 sheriffs who raised concerns about migrants and crime, including sheriffs from Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, Florida, Idaho and Maryland. But no one said they were dealing with or could provide evidence of a crime wave fueled by migrants.

Still, Trump ramped up the accusations in the latter part of the campaign, spreading false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets and portraying Aurora, Colorado, as overrun by Venezuelan gangs, which city officials denied.

“And remember, if they say no, no, these are migrants and these migrants don’t commit crimes like we do,” Trump said at a rally in Wisconsin in September. “No, no, they make our criminals look like babies. These are stone-cold killers. They walk into your kitchen and slit your throat.”

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month, American voters believe immigration is the most important domestic issue the new president must tackle in his first 100 days in office. The message that immigrants in the U.S. illegally are a threat has resonated with Republican voters and some independents; groups that Trump banks will lead him back to the White House.

About 76% of Republicans said immigrants in the U.S. illegally pose a threat to public safety, while only 15% of Democrats took that view, the Reuters poll showed. Independents were divided: 41% agreed and 49% opposed.

Frank Luntz, a veteran pollster, said Trump has the ability to play on U.S. concerns about illegal immigration but could alienate influential voters with vitriolic anti-immigrant comments.

“He goes too far to appeal to people on his right,” Luntz said.

The Trump and Harris campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for data on illegal immigrants in the U.S. and crime.

NO SIGN OF A CRIME WAVE

Many sheriffs are elected and their jurisdictions typically cover counties, including rural areas, while cities often have their own police departments.

Jeffrey Gahler, sheriff of Harford County, Maryland, north of Baltimore, has had to deal with two high-profile recent murders involving immigrants in the U.S. illegally: the 2023 murder of mother of five Rachel Morin, allegedly by a man from El Salvador, and the 2022 murder of Kayla Hamilton by a gang member, also from El Salvador.

Gahler, a Republican who plans to vote for Trump, said stronger border security policies could prevent such crimes, even if they are isolated cases.

“When you add up all these anecdotal cases from across the country, it creates a problem,” he said.

Gahler said the federal government’s ability to deport immigrants who break the laws is an important tool that he said could be applied to U.S. citizens outside his country.

“I would rather deport them back to the city of Baltimore, but that is not within my power,” he said.

Daniel Abbott, sheriff of Van Buren County, Michigan, said at an event with Trump in April that migrants in his area were committing “heinous crimes.” But Abbott, like the other sheriffs, has not provided any statistical evidence to demonstrate the extent of crimes committed by immigrants in the US illegally.

Provincial documents obtained by Reuters through a public records request did not show the immigration status of detainees.

Van Buren, a rural county in southwestern Michigan, has attracted Mexican farmworkers for decades. Several advocates said workers were most likely to become victims of crimes, including exploitation by employers.

INCREASED COSTS

Some sheriffs have complained about the increased costs associated with illegal immigration. Jones, the Butler County sheriff, has said that between 2021 and 2023, 1,000 immigrants in the U.S. illegally have been imprisoned, at a cost of $4 million. The sheriff’s office did not respond to a request to provide the total number of detainees at that time and the total cost.

Police in the small town of Whitewater, Wisconsin, saw a 112% increase in citations for driving without a license between 2021 and 2023, which Chief Daniel Meyer said limits their ability to charge other traffic violations. Meyer also cited several thousand dollars in higher costs for interpretation services.

While Trump-backed sheriffs have focused on illegal immigration, some local law enforcement leaders have had trouble combating false rumors.

In the small town of Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, Police Chief Keith Carpenter said his officers were inundated with calls in September after a photo of people walking near a bus in the town went viral on X.com as alleged evidence of a migrant bus scheme.

Reached by phone, Carpenter said the allegations of criminality were unfounded and that the group appeared to be going to a local Mexican restaurant. REUTERS