In response to the discovery that two years ago the anti-immigrant, build-the-wall, look-at-me-Mr. President sheriff of Bristol County, Massachusetts,Thomas Hodgson, had sent emails to Steven Miller about information on a table at the entrance of the church he attends, if standing at the back of the church with the ushers can be called attending mass, letting anyone stopped by ICE how to interact with agents, many faith leaders in the county wrote a letter to the local newspapers defending the presence of the information cards, and objecting to the sheriff’s spying on their churches, as he claimed two years ago he intended to do.

Their main objections were to his suggestion that church leaders of any faith were doing something illegal that warranted suspicion and possible surveillance, since advising members of a congregation on their rights and obligations before the law is legal, and doing this was based on their sacred texts that encourage them to “give shelter to those fleeing persecution, disasters and famine”, and “to nurture the sick, the indigent, the homeless, the poor, the wayfarer, the imprisoned, and to give succor to those who ask for forgiveness and pardon”.

They made it clear that they do not encourage illegal behavior, and that their places of worship are sacrosanct, and their houses of worship, as has been the case throughout the millennia, can also be sanctuaries for those in need.

They also expressed gratitude and admiration for those congregations which offer hospitality, accommodation and tolerance for those who are fleeing real danger and persecution.

Then, reaffirming the inviolability of their houses of worship, they declared their “right to be safe in our faith.”

This reliance on their religious freedom did not sit well with the sheriff, and his response was in character.

He responded in a letter to the same paper beginning with his mantra, “As Sheriff of Bristol County, my No. 1 charge is public safety,” claiming that this was his motivation behind communicating with a White House official about literature relative to “ICE and Immigration”.

As he usually does, he misrepresented the information on the cards as “literature regarding law enforcement and immigration” when in reality it advised all immigrants, legal and otherwise in a county with a large number of immigrants, how to respond to a knock on their door, being in a place that ICE raids, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time so as not to complicate a simple encounter because of uncertainty or panic.

     The problems with the Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson’s February 19, 2020 response to the letter of the faith leaders who objected to his secretly reporting churches to the White House for following the tenets of their religions are many and troubling.

      Although he likes to throw out that his job is the safety of the county, he would be best at doing that by running his jails properly, and doing his real job without the spotlight seeking.  Local law enforcement keeps us safe, not his attempts to create an adversarial relationship between local law enforcement and their communities by ICE posing as the police, and spreading cartoonish stereotypes of immigrants to create division in the county between residents.  He states his email was just to inform while he omits that in his email he not only speculates about how widespread such legal information is made available, but that his “undercover units” are prepared to investigate.

     As he stated, “My undercover units are poised and ready for whatever we can do to identify and expedite the arrest and removal of criminal illegal alien. Our discussion regarding a hotline is clearly relevant.”

     Why does a county sheriff have an undercover unit when his job is to run his jails, not patrol streets, pursue suspects, or arrest the same?

How has he been using this unit he claims he has?

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    He asks in his letter, “Did I ask the White House to spy on my or any other church? No. Did I say the literature was suspicious? No.”

     He might not have asked the White House “to spy on my or any other churches”, but he certainly volunteered his “undercover unit” to do it.

    In his email, dated August 7, 2017, and sent at 12:41 p.m., he wrote,

“Stephen [Miller], thought you might like to see samples of cards I discovered in a holder at the back of St. Julie’s Church in Dartmouth, MA. While attending mass last Sunday, I noticed a holder on a table near the entrance marked, ‘ICE-Immigration’ and noticed the three stacks of colored cards. Trying to determine if this is an isolated situation or a common occurrence in other parish churches.  I thought it was appropriate to make Washington aware when these things were happening. If these kinds of things are going on in churches, then we should be aware of it.”

     If he didn’t say the literature was suspicious, he certainly acted as if it were, writing to Steven Miller without first talking to the pastor of the church and only then after his emails were uncovered two years later.

     And, once again he promoted the idea that Sanctuary communities across the United States are commonly known as places where illegal immigrants are committing serious crimes, yet, he does not cite statistics, nor does he explain how this applies to Bristol County.

    This is what he always does. He makes statements whose strength is merely that he makes them. Why bother with fact?

     He claimed that it is harder for the undocumented to be apprehended by law enforcement, but this could be because they are not doing anything that warrants it. If a person is here illegally, staying in the shadows would protect them from deportation, something that committing crimes would make difficult.

    And if it is all about places where illegal immigrants are committing serious crimes, why are most places raided by ICE places where people are working legitimate jobs during work hours?

  Are we to assume, without his citing statistics, not individual, isolated incidents, and usually the same ones, that invisible crime is being committed among us, but in spite of their number and severity, we just don’t notice them?

     Some of the safest cities in the country are in Massachusetts like Newton, Northhampton, and Orleans, and they are sanctuary communities,.

Finally his misrepresenting what his job actually is, and how desperate he is to make it something it is not is encapsulated in this gem from his letter,

“Like our faith leaders, I too have an obligation to save and protect souls, but in a different way as a law enforcement professional.”

     No, his job is to run his jails, the majority of inmates in which have yet to have their day in court and are, therefore, innocent until proven guilty. He is not some anointed faith leader doing the Lord’s work.

    When a county sheriff whose job is to run two jails has an undercover unit, spreads falsehoods about people in the county to promote a political agenda and himself, makes broad statements without facts to back them, reports churches to Steven Miller for following the tenets of their religious beliefs , and then goes so far as to present his job in religious terms where he claims his obligation is to save souls, it is time for change.