Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren blamed lawmakers for the “continuing loss” of “innocent American lives” due to illegal immigration in a letter he wrote in support of President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.
Warren's open letter to the president and Congress, written on Cobb Sheriff's Office letterhead, came as the partial government shutdown entered its 18th day and Trump intensified his public relations campaign for $5.7 billion in wall funding.
“For more than 20 years, we have been asking Congress to provide funding to stop the flow of illegal immigration and the carnage, trauma, and suffering it brings to our neighborhoods,” Warren wrote. “As one of America’s Sheriffs who is deeply committed to my oath and promise to protect my citizens and legal residents from harm, I am, like most Americans, fed up with Congress’s refusal to do their jobs and fund the border wall.”
Warren wrote that “criminal illegal aliens” were engaged in crime including rape, murder and drug smuggling, citing media reports from across the country. The seven-paragraph letter mentions no specific examples from Cobb County or his decades of experience in law enforcement.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, most drugs are smuggled into the country through existing ports of entry, not stretches of the border without barriers.
Warren, who was sworn in as sheriff in 2004, is an outspoken immigration hard-liner whose office participates in a joint immigration enforcement program with federal agencies known as 287(g).
In 2010, he stopped construction on the new Cobb courthouse due to allegations that some of the workers were undocumented. He also gained national attention for using 287(g) to help initiate deportation proceedings against a Kennesaw State University student who was stopped for a traffic violation and admitted to being in the country illegally since she was a child.
And Warren has shown he’s willing to throw his weight around, politically.
The school's president, Sam Olens, resigned under pressure shortly after, and one of the cheerleaders has filed a lawsuit against Warren and other officials accusing them of violating her civil rights.
Read the entire letter here:
