“If we wanted to make immigration laws, we'd work for Border Patrol,” says Wilmot.
Homan, Lamb, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and incoming Pinal County Sheriff Ross Teeple, who were also at the meeting, did not respond to requests for comment about what they discussed.
When asked about his effort to establish Mack and the sheriffs as a key part of the mass deportation efforts, Wilmot dismissed the former sheriff's claims.
“No one listens to him,” Wilmot says. “He hasn't been sheriff long. He is not connected to sheriffs across the country. He is not involved in any of our decision making. He pushes his agenda.”
In response, Mack claims that since leaving office he has held over 100 seminars and conferences with over 1,200 sheriffs. “I invite Sheriff Wilmot to do what we tell all sheriffs, just come and see our class for yourself,” he told WIRED. “If you don't like it, criticize me and my work.”
Jessica Pishko, an attorney and recently published author supreme law of the countryA book that examines the unchecked power of the sheriff agrees with Wilmot. “I would be cautious about taking anything Richard Mack says at face value,” she says. “He was not part of the Trump administration before, and there is no reason to think he needs Mack . Whatever he is doing is with the intention of promoting himself.”
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment about what role Mack or other sheriffs would play in helping fulfill a campaign promise to rid the United States of unauthorized immigrants.
Trump promised extensively relegated during his first term, but failed to achieve his goals. The average annual total of deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement between 2016 and 2020 was more than 300,000 – a significant decline from 380,000 people. are deported every year During the presidency of Barack Obama.
But during this election campaign, Trump and his allies made it clear that the scale and pace of deportation plans would be on a different level for his second term.
“Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to enact the most spectacular immigration crackdown,” said Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner who formalized the child separation policy with Homan during Trump’s first term. told the New York Times More than a year ago.