Thread: A sign of the times in Butler County, Ohio

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Published: 01.02.2008
Bronson : A sign of the times in Butler County, Ohio
Sheriff's anti-illegal immigrant campaign results in 40-50 deportations a month from jail
PETER BRONSON
Tucson Citizen
CINCINNATI - A snapshot on his Web site shows Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones with his hands on his hips, standing between a creosote bush and a cholla cactus, with the rugged sepia-brown mountains of southern Arizona in the background.
He was a long way from home at his own expense to make a point: The border is closer than we think.
In Cochise County, south of Tucson, 300 people are caught crossing the border illegally every 24 hours, Jones learned during an October visit. But Border Patrol officers told him that more than 1,000 slip past every day. And some wind up in the Butler County Jail.
"When I took office it wasn't very long before I noticed that I had prisoners who weren't U.S. citizens. I had no space for them, so I began calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take them off my hands or at least pay for them," Jones said.
"I was about the only one crying out about this," he said. "Now, 2 1/2 years later, it's everywhere."
He cites a Quinnipiac poll showing that more than 80 percent of Ohio opposes driver's licenses and welfare or health benefits for illegal immigrants. Two-thirds want a fence on the Mexican border. National polls are just as lopsided. The people "get it," but the political and media elites don't, Jones says.
They argue for amnesty, driver's licenses, health care benefits and welfare for illegal immigrants, who they say only want a better life for their families.
"Ten percent have criminal records," Jones said. "Not all of them are coming here for a better life."
In Cochise County, he saw pictures of drugs smuggled in car seats and dashboards. In a six-month period, 9 tons of marijuana were seized on the border - but 90 percent of the drugs get through. "I was in shock," he said.
At home in Butler County, he has seen cocaine, marijuana and crystal meth from Mexico increase. "A 100-pound bust of marijuana used to be a big thing. It's not anymore."
Cochise County lawmen told him smugglers carry nearly that much in each backpack.
Another snapshot on his Web site shows Jones next to a bright yellow sign with an arrow pointing at his jail: "Illegal Aliens Here."
"When anybody comes into our jail, they are asked if they are a U.S. citizen, and they are asked for a Social Security number. If the answer is no to either one, that sets off a signal and we notify ICE."
Six ICE agents working out of a Butler County Jail office cover southwest Ohio. And each month they deport 40 to 50 people. At jail costs of $55 per day for each prisoner, that adds up to a monthly bill of more than $80,000.
And that's just a drop in the overflowing bucket, the sheriff says. "It's a mess. It's getting worse and now it's starting to get more violent."
Jones has put up billboards to protest the problem, fought with and billed the federal government, and gone on radio and TV nationwide to demand federal and state help.
"That's kind of different for a local sheriff, isn't it?" he says.
"Somebody has to do something," he says. "This isn't Texas or Arizona, but it's becoming that way. They're now moving to the inner part of the country where the jobs are."
He favors increasing legal immigration, but says illegal immigrants cause problems besides crime: reduced wages, exploited workers, public health problems and the economic drain of wages sent south of the border. A backlash against people here illegally causes unfair suspicion of all Hispanics.
Jones says he gets flak from the ACLU and Latino groups, but voters in Butler County back him overwhelmingly. Except at Miami University, where he says some faculty members "don't like what I'm doing."
But Jones will go as far as the Arizona border to make his point: "There's people coming into this country for criminal reasons," he said. "It may be later than we think."

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/72878.php

Alright another good sheriff who get it!!!