Sheriff's anti-illegal immigrant campaign results in 40-50 deportations a month from jail

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

PETER BRONSON

Published: 01.02.2008

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.