Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press

Here is a reason — a very important reason — why there needs to be a bright line separating the federal government and local police forces on immigration.

It’s Sheriff Jimmy (J.J.) Jones, of Knox County, Tenn., who’s furious that Immigration and Customs Enforcement canceled a plan to train and authorize his deputies, through the 287(g) program, to root out immigration violators in county jails. Sheriff Jones had an agreement drawn up and ready to go, but ICE pulled the plug, in a letter citing “resource concerns” — meaning sequestration budget cuts.

Sheriff Jones posted an angry response on his Web site on Wednesday:



“I will continue to enforce these federal immigration violations with or without the help of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If need be, I will stack these violators like cordwood in the Knox County Jail until the appropriate federal agency responds.”

Stack these violators like cordwood: That’s brutal imagery, befitting a violent demagogue, not a sworn peace officer.

Local immigrant-rights advocates, including the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, were delighted by the news. They have fiercely opposed 287(g), calling it a dangerous invitation to racial profiling, a waste of resources and a threat to public safety, because it makes people in immigrant communities afraid of the police.

They aren’t making that up. The American Civil Liberties Union examined a 287(g) program in Davidson County, Tenn., which deported nearly 10,000 people from Nashville, and found that it had exacted a very high price: “multiple negative effects on due process, community policing and public safety,” it said in a December 2012 report.

“The vast majority of people who were deported under this program,” the report said, “were stopped for non-violent misdemeanors such as driving or fishing without a license. These people included parents, students, workers, primary caregivers and otherwise upstanding community residents, people who did not threaten public safety.”

Sheriff Jones obviously sees through a different lens, and views immigrants as a dangerous criminal class. Here is his full statement:

Once again, the federal government has used sequestration as a smokescreen to shirk its responsibilities for providing safety and security to its citizens by denying Knox County the 287(g) corrections model. An inept administration is clearing the way for law breaking illegal immigrants to continue to thrive in our community and ultimately be allowed to reside in the United States. Hopefully, the denial of this program will not create an influx of illegal immigrants who think that without this program they will be able to break the law and then be less likely to be deported. The vast majority of Knox County citizens feel just as I do when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration. I strongly support the 287(g) program and will continue to make every effort to pursue its implementation. I will continue to enforce these federal immigration violations with or without the help of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). If need be, I will stack these violators like cordwood in the Knox County Jail until the appropriate federal agency responds.

Sheriff Jones falsely equates unauthorized immigration with rampant and dangerous criminality. He defames good people in his community while spouting discredited right-wing talking points about evil outsiders. He’s as wrong as can be, and all the people are Knox County should be glad that he is not going to be an official partner of ICE.