Two weeks before Donald Trump took the oath of office, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson walked into a Fall River, Massachusetts, auditorium filled with law enforcement officers from around the county. With bagpipes blaring, Hodgson was sworn in for his fourth term, following an uncontested election.[1] It was a moment of triumph for the state’s longest-serving sheriff, and Hodgson’s speech signaled he might now have the political capital to reverse a courtroom defeat seven years earlier, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had denied his ability to levy extortionist fees on the prisoners in his custody.[2] But it was his widely-reported plan to send detainees south to work on Trump’s promised border wall that made national news.[3] Implicit in his speech, Hodgson was going to focus on national immigration policy, rather than running jails in his 500,000-person county.
Hodgson’s grandiose plans, especially in the aftermath of the 2016 election, were alarming but hardly surprising to those who have followed his career. For 23 years, Hodgson has been selling the same brand: a patriot above politics, a tough lawman, a fair jailer, and a man of faith and conviction who says what he thinks, does what is right, consequences be damned.
Despite his denials, Hodgson is deeply political, spending substantial time politicking on national issues. His attempts to patrol Bristol County’s towns and cities like his Stetson-hatted colleagues out West have largely been thwarted in a state where sheriffs simply run jails and serve papers. As a jailer, Hodgson’s methods are cruel, ineffective, and target people of color and the poor. But cruelty and caricature has become his political brand.
Hodgson’s limited mandate as a county sheriff may first appear to be a liability but it’s given him both time and latitude to push “[tough] on crime”[4] measures that have made him a perfect ally for far-right groups. Adopting a persona similar to that of disgraced Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio—media hound and America’s self-declared “toughest sheriff”—Hodgson has hitched his wagon to a series of right-wing ideologues and lobbyists, and used cruelty toward those in his custody to appeal to fearful or xenophobic voters. Through association with far-right darlings like Arpaio, anti-immigrant groups, and—as a bevy of documents revealed this winter—his ingratiating himself with anti-immigrant politicians and staffers like Jeff Sessions and Stephen Miller, Hodgson’s hard work finally paid off with his admission to the inner sanctum of the Trump administration.
An Unjust Jailer
Born in 1954 in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to a Vatican courier and a former Army nurse,[5] Hodgson was one of 13 children in a devoutly Catholic family.[6] In 1977 he dropped out of college to join the Ocean City, Maryland, police department,[7] rising through the ranks to become head of internal affairs before abruptly leaving in 1988 and moving to New Bedford, Massachusetts, his mother’s hometown. In 1991, he won an at-large seat on the city council, where he served nearly three terms.[8]
In 1997, Republican Governor William Weld, who as a gubernatorial candidate had promised to introduce detainees to “the joys of breaking rocks,” appointed Hodgson sheriff[9] to fill a vacancy left by a retiring predecessor.[10] By Massachusetts law, Hodgson’s office is limited to running the county jail, process serving, and transporting detainees.[11] In 2016 the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that sheriffs don’t have the same warrantless arrest powers of police officers.[12] Hodgson’s official duties, then, consist of running the Ash Street Jail in New Bedford,[13] men’s and women’s facilities at the Dartmouth jail, an ICE detention center, and a Civil Process division.[14]
Hodgson embraced Weld’s draconian campaign promise as his own, moving in his first years to remove weight training equipment and televisions from county lock-ups and, according to several public defenders, restricting attorney visits. He reduced the quality and portions of food detainees were served, instituted Southern-style chain gangs, and set about ensuring that his jails were places of misery rather than rehabilitation.[15]
When Hodgson stood for his first election as the incumbent sheriff in 1998, the United States’ most “famous” sheriff was Maricopa County, Arizona’s Joe Arpaio,[16] then becoming notorious[17] for his culture warring, racial profiling,[18] and use of chain gangs.[19] By 1999 Hodgson was already copying Arpaio’s methods when he flew to Arizona to visit the man who would eventually be found guilty of criminal contempt by a federal judge.[20] “It’s not a buffet here,” Hodgson remembers Arpaio saying of the inadequate and inedible food he served in his “tent city” jail in 120 degree heat.[21] Hodgson even appropriated Arpaio’s tagline: “Jail is not a country club.”[22]
Hodgson’s philosophy as a sheriff is a simplistic, red meat pitch to law-and-order supporters: treat detainees so poorly that they won’t want to return to jail. Such was his message in a 2010 campaign ad:
Jail is the last stage of the criminal justice system, and it’s the most important when it comes to stopping the cycle of crime. … Jail is not a country club. That’s why, once you’ve done time in the Bristol County House of Corrections, you won’t want to come back.[23]
Complaints about abuse began early in Hodgson’s tenure, including a 1998 lawsuit alleging cruel and unusual punishment. In 2002, the sheriff imposed sweeping per-diem fees on prisoners, requiring each prisoner to pay for room, board, medical care, and education.[24] The fees were struck down in 2004, sparking a lengthy legal fight.[25] Ultimately, in 2010, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Hodgson had “acted in excess of his authority and contrary to the intent of the Legislature.”[26] But Hodgson still found a way to wring profits out of those he incarcerated: by providing such poor and insufficient food and clothing that prisoners were forced to buy both at personal expense from the jail’s commissary.
In 2009 a judge ruled that Hodgson was housing prisoners under cruel and unusual conditions. Prisoners were being triple-bunked at the Ash Street Jail, forced to sleep on the floor, and kept in cells without toilets.[27] In 2017, it was also one of two jails Hodgson ran that could not document compliance with safe temperature regulations.[28] Since the jail’s kitchen couldn’t pass a health inspection,[29] meals had to be prepared in Dartmouth and delivered to the New Bedford facility.[30] One detainee described the food as “not enough to feed a five year old child.”[31] In 2018, following a food strike by detainees,[32] Standard-Times reporters Jennette Barnes and Michael Bonner discovered expired food in the pantry and meals they described as inedible.[33] Hodgson’s response was dismissive: “I always tell people, ‘Look, [if you want] cake, cookies, you want more ounces of orange juice or what have you, don’t come here.’”
In 2018 a class-action lawsuit asserted that a phone contract between Hodgson and Securus Technologies, which provided telecommunication services for detainees, constituted an illegal kickback scheme. Between August 2011 and June 2013, Hodgson made $1.17 million in “commissions” from Securus, as well as an additional lump sum payment of $820,000.[34] Hodgson was charging detainees and their families at least double, and in some cases 30 times more per minute than the rate charged by the Department of Corrections.[35] At least one suicide at the Bristol County jail has been directly linked to the cost of phone calls.[36]
The previous year Hodgson had banned in-person visits to detainees, requiring family and friends of detainees to use video conferencing supplied by Securus. The ACLU objected[37] and legislators had to add protections for in-person visitation to the 2018 criminal justice reform package in order to thwart Hodgson’s scheme.[38]
Hodgson has also been repeatedly accused of neglecting detainees’ health. Men formerly jailed at the Bristol County House of Correction (BHOC) report that newly-incarcerated detainees are denied medications for substance addiction and endure painful withdrawal,[39] in violation of Department of Correction medication policies.[40]
In a second class-action lawsuit in 2018, Hodgson was accused of holding detainees with mental illnesses in solitary-confinement cells and denying them programs and services.[41] Unsurprisingly, BHOC has the highest suicide rate of any county jail in Massachusetts,[42] and Hodgson is currently fighting several wrongful death lawsuits.[43] In 2019, Bristol County was tied for the most pretrial jail deaths in the state.[44]
Corruption
Allegations of corruption have also dogged Hodgson throughout his career. He’s been accused of patronage, boosting his friends’ pensions, taking questionable gifts from supporters,[45] receiving kickbacks, abusing taxpayer money for personal expenses, mismanaging his office’s finances, and spending millions on doomed court cases.
When Hodgson initially ran for sheriff in 1998, his opponent, Rep. Joseph McIntyre, accused him of running a “patronage bazaar” in the sheriff’s office, and a newspaper slammed Hodgson for practices ranging from “hiring of publicity agents to his fattening of the payroll with patronage employees, who repay him with campaign contributions that he encourages.”[46] Hodgson’s 2010 challengers charged him with trading jobs and pensions for political support.[47] During a debate, one claimed, “the Sheriff has spent millions of dollars on unnecessary legal fees to three lawyers who are his personal friends and political contributors.”[48]
By 2008, Hodgson had spent $1 million on a labor case he stubbornly took all the way to the Supreme Court.[49] He also spent $3.4 million on other cases.[50] Of that, $1.3 million went to attorney—and “special sheriff”—Bruce Assad. Another $1.3 million went to attorney Ronald Lowenstein, a donor whose family was flagged in 2004 for exceeding the legally permitted campaign maximum.[51]
After the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct forced Judge Michael Livingstone off the bench for ethics violations in 2008, Hodgson appointed the disgraced judge to run the jail’s medical program, later admitting that former state Sen. William Q. “Biff” MacLean Jr., New Bedford City Councilor John T. Saunders, and a former mayor, Judge John Markey, had approached him looking for a job for Livingstone, who sought to beef up his state pension.[52]
A state audit, released in 2018, discovered numerous problems with the sheriff’s relationship with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including Hodgson’s failure to reimburse the state nearly $350,000 in ICE payments deposited into one of at least a dozen sheriff’s accounts not monitored by the Comptroller and thus free from state oversight.[53] Also in 2018, the social justice organization Bristol County for Correctional Justice obtained Hodgson’s travel records through a public information request,[54] revealing that Hodgson had stuck taxpayers with the tab for tens of thousands of dollars of trips to Washington, Texas, Mackinac Island, Foxwoods, anti-immigrant events and right-wing conferences.[55]
Empire Building
From his first years in office, Hodgson seemed determined to expand the scope of his role. He added 100 employees, “a SWAT-like special operations team,” and rolled out his Jim Crow-style chain gangs.[56] A 2000 article in the Standard-Times on “The Hodgson empire” noted, “Once little more than a warden, the Bristol County sheriff is now the very visible head of what has become the largest law enforcement agency in Southeastern Massachusetts, with interests far beyond the mere housing and transportation of county prisoners.”[57] Hodgson soon acquired more equipment and staff, including K9 units, and loaned them out to local police forces on his own terms. In 2000, Doherty reported, the Fall River Fourth of July parade featured “a contingent of heavily armed sheriff’s deputies—helmeted, with combat boots laced to mid-shin, machine guns at the ready—flanked by some of his 10 canine officers and a small armada of gleaming new trucks and vans emblazoned with the now-ubiquitous yellow and black insignia of the department.”[58]
Often, Hodgson stepped on toes. When he instituted his chain gangs, New Bedford Mayor Fred Kalisz was outraged. “You can’t just go into a community and change the way public safety is done,” he told the Standard-Times. “To have someone come in with what some would call a privatized police force and try to force their ways on the community is just not productive.” George Leontire, New Bedford’s City Solicitor, put it less charitably to the Standard-Times: “He thinks it says ‘I’m a tough-guy boss.’ But I think he’s a Boss Hogg.”[59] Lee Charlton, then-president of the New Bedford NAACP, recalled how Hodgson’s chain gangs rubbed salt into the county’s deep racial wounds. In the Whitest parts of Bristol County, Hodgson sold his methods to people worried about an invasion of “urban criminals” and who believed, in Charlton’s words, that they needed to “fear people like me.”[60]
In 2003 Hodgson declared that New Bedford had become “a killing field” and, without approval from the city, launched patrols on city streets, prompting Mayor Kalisz to file a complaint in Superior Court. New Bedford’s police and the Bristol County District Attorney also decried the move, warning that Hodgson’s poorly-trained officers would compromise investigations and endanger real cops.[61]
Still, Hodgson persisted—for many years—in seeking to acquire the patrol powers that Western sheriffs enjoy. In 2017 a retired Fall River police sergeant wrote a letter to the local paper, blasting Hodgson for conspiring with former mayor Jasiel Correia (who now faces federal corruption charges) to allow his officers to patrol Fall River,[62] in violation of a labor agreement, and to take over the city’s jail.[63] Hodgson brushes off criticisms of his many power grabs: “We are completely within our constitutional mandate,” he told the Standard-Times. “Counties were actually established even before the state… And I’ve never been a guy who believes before we can do anything we have to get a consensus. I’ve kind of been the guy to go out and do it.”[64]
Hopping on the Anti-Immigrant Bandwagon
In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched the Secure Communities program, enlisting local law enforcement in federal efforts to detect, detain, and remove non-citizens and collect fingerprints and other identification. The program was popular with Western sheriffs with patrol powers like Joe Arpaio, who stepped up his racial profiling of Latinx people[65] and filled his jails to overflowing with federal detainees before being barred from participating in ICE programs in 2011.[66]
ICE had already built Hodgson a $3.2 million detention facility, later named the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center. The facility opened in April 2007, just missing a raid that swept up 361 Central American workers. More than 200 of that number were immediately transported to Texas, but over 90 were housed in regional jails, including Hodgson’s Dartmouth facilities.[67] Yet despite this infusion of ICE money and the millions Hodgson claimed the facility had received in ICE reimbursements, by 2009, the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office was running a $5.4 million deficit[68] and a 2010 state audit found extensive issues, including approximately 1,400 pieces of inventory that had no assessed value at Hodgson’s facilities.[69] Hodgson had already been angry at Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick over what he charged was the state’s chronic underfunding and attempts to seize control of jails from sheriffs. But Patrick’s reservations about expanding Secure Communities was the last straw,[70] and Hodgson went to war with the governor.[71] In 2012, after receiving pressure and assurances from the Obama administration, Patrick relented and Secure Communities was implemented in all remaining jurisdictions.[72] Hodgson had seemingly prevailed.
The campaign would mark Hodgson’s entry into anti-immigrant politics, but he would soon embrace the cause much more fully. In particular, he would align himself with various organizations launched by John H. Tanton, a Michigan ophthalmologist and White nationalist who created a network of over a dozen anti-immigrant groups,[73] nearly half of which have been designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[74]
The three best-known Tanton groups[75] are the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR),[76] a lobbying and action group that has amassed great influence within the Trump administration; the report-generating Center for Immigration Studies (CIS);[77] and NumbersUSA, a purportedly grassroots organization that claims nine million members.[78] Both FAIR and CIS have spawned various front groups, including Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime (AVIAC),[79] the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform (MCIR),[80] and Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities.[81] Since his first, opportunistic embrace of anti-immigrant politics, Hodgson has come to forge strong connections with all of these groups and their leaders.
Federation for American Immigration Reform
Sheriffs are elected local officials with surprisingly little accountability[82] but they have a lot of power to enforce national immigration policy through arrests, 287(g) programs (which authorize state and local authorities to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants),[83] and Intergovernmental Service Agreements. And sheriffs can bring even unpopular immigration policies to their communities in the name of “protecting citizens.” In 2011 FAIR began publicly cultivating sheriffs to carry out its agenda.[84] According to the group’s 2011 Annual Report, FAIR
…met with these sheriffs and their deputies, supplied them with a steady stream of information, established regular conference calls so they could share information and experiences, and invited them to come to Washington to meet with FAIR’s senior staff. We invited sheriffs who played the most prominent roles in addressing illegal immigration locally to FAIR’s national talk radio event, Hold Their Feet to the Fire, where they shared their stories and expertise with listeners across the country.[85]
By 2014 Hodgson was taking a leadership role in the organization, working with FAIR’s long-serving National Field Director, Susan Tully,[86] to organize a “fact-finding mission”[87] to the Rio Grande so sheriffs could “see exactly what is going on along the border,” as Tully put it.[88]
The same year Hodgson used Bristol County Sheriff Office letterhead to write to fellow anti-“amnesty” sheriffs, asking them to travel to Washington, D.C., in late 2014 to support Senators Jeff Sessions, David Vitter, and other Congress members opposed to the Obama administration’s border enforcement policies.[89] Hodgson’s letter called for at least 200 sheriffs to make the trip and warned that immigrants bring diseases that overwhelm public health and pose a national security threat.[90]
In 2015, Hodgson helped FAIR host a “border summit” in McAllen, Texas,[91] with CIS’s Jessica Vaughan allegedly providing the training.[92] The summit took place at the Texas ranch of Mike and Linda Vickers, founders of the vigilante group Texas Border Volunteers, itself an offshoot of the Minuteman Project,[93] a loose-knit group of border vigilantes, some of whose members have been affiliated with White supremacist militias and linked to murders[94] and incidents like the illegal detention of hundreds of migrants in April 2019.[95] Like Hodgson, the Vickers are also regular attendees of FAIR’s Hold Their Feet to the Fire events.[96]
The participation of sheriffs at these events, in which members of far-right organizations become guests on dozens of talk radio shows broadcast directly from the conference site, are typically organized by FAIR’s Susan Tully, an anti-immigration hardliner who, according to the Anti-Defamation League, has baselessly claimed that the Obama administration ran school buses across the border to provide free K-12 education for Mexicans;[97] was involved in organizing a racist housing ban on immigrants in Fremont, Nebraska, in 2013;[98] and has maintained extensive contacts with militia members and White supremacists.[99]
Hodgson has been a consistent attendee at Hold Their Feet to the Fire events, most recently in 2019.[100] In 2017, Hodgson joined FAIR’s National Board of Advisors[101] and has appeared at anti-immigrant events sponsored by both FAIR and CIS.[102] When asked if his membership on the board of a group founded by a White supremacist might be construed as endorsement of those views or just poor judgment, Hodgson bristled, telling me, “I’m on a Board of Advisors. I go once a year to listen.”[103]
But Hodgson is too modest. In addition to his ongoing participation in FAIR events, in 2014 he delivered a two-hour dinner address to its board on “The Effect of the President’s Decisions on DACA and its Impact on Our Law Enforcement Challenges.” Likewise, in 2016 he joined FAIR’s “Sanctuary Cities and Law Enforcement” roundtable—an event that also included a talk by FAIR’s law enforcement manager entitled, “Soros Hacked: The Truth Behind His Big Money Network to Destroy U.S. Borders.”[104]
Center for Immigration Studies
Regarded by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group,[105] the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) publishes a variety of statistics and reports, though their accuracy has been challenged by the Cato Institute,[106] the American Immigration Council,[107] and others.[108] CIS leadership, including Executive Director Mark Krikorian and Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan,[109] frequently testify as expert witnesses before Congress, despite their track record of racist commentary and associations. In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, Krikorian remarked, “My guess is that Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.”[110] Vaughn has appeared as a featured speaker at an annual workshop for the White nationalist publisher The Social Contract Press (another John Tanton project),[111] where she spoke alongside White nationalist Peter Brimelow,[112] founder of the racist website VDARE.[113] She’s also appeared on broadcasts of the CIS radio show “Borderline” with Chilton Williamson, Jr., a longtime editor at the neo-Confederate Chronicles magazine.
Hodgson has worked closely with the organization. In 2013, halfway through the Obama administration, a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight was trying to find common ground on immigration reforms, while two CIS alumni, Janice Kephart and Steven Camarota, were working for Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to scuttle those efforts.[114] Shortly before the Gang of Eight spoke in one chamber of the Senate, Sessions’ aide, current White House immigration advisor Stephen Miller, was busy in another readying the microphone for a parade of sheriffs and ICE agents ready to testify against the reforms as “amnesty first, enforcement perhaps never” and painting immigrants as “criminals who have committed felonies, who have assaulted our officers, and who prey on children.”[115] Hodgson was among them, and when he spoke, he painted a grim picture of 12 million dangerous, criminal aliens “disrespect[ing]” U.S. laws and bringing disease. “Illegal immigrants are creating public health hazards, public safety concerns,” he said, “living in homes, one-room apartments with three families, taking mattresses off the streets that are infested with bedbugs, filling our emergency rooms for lack of preventative care and costing the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars.”[116]
In 2017, Hodgson testified with Vaughan at Immigration and Border Security hearings in Washington.[117] In January 2020, the two teamed up again at the Massachusetts State House to testify against the Safe Communities Act, a bill that would limit state involvement in federal immigration enforcement.[118] Most recently, this April, Hodgson participated in a CIS teleconference with Krikorian entitled “Should ICE Release or Continue Detention for Aliens during Pandemic?” Hodgson said it was “outrageous” that he was held accountable by the Massachusetts congressional delegation for opposing the release of detainees during a COVID-19 outbreak at one of his jails. The teleconference ended with a plug for a hotline to report “illegal-alien crime.”[119]
Front Groups and White Supremacists
In September 2019 Hodgson appeared at an “Angel Families” event sponsored by Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime (AVIAC),[120] a FAIR front group[121] with numerous White supremacist connections[122] that relies on visceral testimony by relatives of victims of car accidents or crimes committed by undocumented immigrants to push its anti-immigrant agenda.[123] During January’s hearings about the Massachusetts Safe Communities Act, AVIAC’s president and vice president both testified, alongside Hodgson, in opposition to the bill.[124] Also testifying that day was Lou Murray, a member of President Trump’s Catholic Advisory Group[125] and founder of the FAIR- and CIS-aligned group Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities;[126] and Steve Kropper, Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform,[127] which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a “nativist extremist group”[128] and whose members have collaborated with the Minuteman Project,[129] which has documented connections to White supremacist groups.[130]
Besides FAIR and CIS, MCIR is also affiliated with the Tanton network’s The Social Contract Press, which in 2016 published a piece by MCIR Executive Board member John Thompson,[131] who approvingly quotes White supremacist Jason Richwine, author of a paper entitled, “IQ and Immigration Policy.”[132] (One line from Richwine’s paper reads, “No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.”)
In 2018, Hodgson announced that the National Sheriffs’ Association would be crowd-funding Trump’s border wall.[133] The project eventually folded and its website now redirects donors to a site named Fund the Wall, run by the American Border Foundation (ABF), a Wyoming charity connected[134] to the right-wing militia group American Defence Force, and which to date has only managed to collect a little over $227,000.[135] ABF Managing Director Quentin Kramer has appeared on the right-wing radio show Southern Sense,[136] and its communications director, Jeremy Messina,[137] frequently posted White supremacist content on his Facebook page, before it was deleted.[138] In January 2019, Hodgson appeared at a Washington, D.C., press conference with ABF leadership and members of AVIAC, congratulating them. “Thank you for representing what I think is the best of America,” he said. “I will tell you that the sheriffs of America are standing with all of you.”[139]
Islamophobia
Hodgson’s ire isn’t limited to Latinx immigrants and refugees; he’s tied into a broader far-right ecosystem that includes a network of Islamophobic leaders responsible for mobilizing resentment against Muslims in the U.S. and abroad. During our September 2019 interview,[140] Hodgson parotted a debunked claim that New Jersey Muslims had celebrated the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11. This claim is similar to one made by Donald Trump, which earned a “Pants on Fire” rating from Politifact.[141]
Hodgson is also connected to Dennis Michael Lynch, a filmmaker and staunch supporter of far-right movements from anti-immigrant groups to Patriot movement leaders like Cliven Bundy.[142] In 2015 Hodgson appeared with Lynch at Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, Massachusetts, a synagogue run by Rabbi Jonathan Hausman,[143] who has hosted numerous anti-Islam speakers, including far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, frequently described as a neofascist.[144] When asked about the appearance, Hodgson downplayed the connection, saying he was just there doing his duty to inform the public about terrorism: “They asked me to come speak about terrorism,” he told me. “That’s why I was there, because of my involvement with the terrorism task force.”[145]
Another group of Muslim-bashers Hodgson is connected with, Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT for America, claims to have more than 1,000 chapters around the country (although this figure is disputed), and espouses the crudest sort of Islamophobia.[146] The Anti-Defamation League,[147] the Southern Poverty Law Center,[148] Political Research Associates,[149] and others[150] have documented ACT’s many links with antisemitic, neonazi, Christian Right, Identitarian, and White supremacist groups. The group, which claims that the U.S. Constitution, Western civilization, and Judeo-Christian culture are under attack by Islam, has sponsored anti-Muslim legislation[151] and organizes anti-Muslim events, sometimes with neonazis.[152] In 2017 and 2019, Hodgson and Gabriel, a long-time guest at the event,[153] appeared together at FAIR’s Hold Their Feet to the Fire event in Washington, D.C.[154]
From Bristol County to Washington
In December 2019, the ACLU of Massachusetts published a trove of documents requested from Hodgson, including hundreds of emails between him and the White House, and dozens with White House immigration advisors Stephen Miller and John Zadrozny.
The correspondence revealed that Hodgson had made more than a dozen trips to meet with Miller, attend White House briefings, and participate in events organized by FAIR and attended by CIS staffers.[155] The ACLU’s release of documents followed a prior cache of emails published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, exposing the extent of Stephen Miller’s contacts with worst-of-the-worst White supremacist organizations.[156] Hodgson’s unctuous emails to Miller and to Zadrozny, who came from FAIR and is now acting chief of staff for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,[157] were filled with suggestions for punishing state law enforcement agencies and municipalities that didn’t cooperate with ICE, and for turning his state Department of Motor Vehicles into an anti-immigrant intelligence agency. Hodgson complained to Miller about Massachusetts laws, courts, legislators, and its attorney general, and repeatedly asked for Miller’s help circumventing state oversight of his ICE-related expenses.[158] In one email that particularly outraged Bristol County residents, Hodgson reported his own church to Miller for displaying “Know Your Rights” cards for immigrant congregants.[159]
This March, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, detainees in Hodgson’s tightly packed ICE detention facility at the Bristol County Jail and House of Correction, unsuccessfully petitioned him for release and sanitation of the facilities.[160] The Massachusetts congressional delegation called for the release of people who posed no danger to society.[161] And at the end of March, the detainees, represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights, sued Hodgson, ICE, and the Department of Homeland Security for the immediate release of vulnerable people and for greater COVID-19 testing.[162] U.S. District Court Judge William Young issued a preliminary injunction, finding that both ICE and Hodgson had likely violated the constitutional rights of detainees by refusing to test them for the virus.[163]
Young’s ruling—ordering both testing and the release of vulnerable detainees[164]—infuriated Hodgson, who countered by publishing a “Prisoner Release Alert” newsletter, listing charges some of the detainees faced.[165] On May 1, 10 ICE detainees were finally summoned for testing and told to bring their belongings. Suspecting the punitive use of solitary confinement for requesting the tests, the detainees refused to leave common and sleeping areas.
The riot that followed has differing accounts. Hodgson claims the ICE detainees “rushed” corrections officers. But immigration attorney Ira Alkalay, who was speaking with one of the detainees during the disturbance, told a WBSM News reporter that “Hodgson threw his client to the ground and pepper sprayed him when he was on the phone with counsel.”[166] On May 6, the Massachusetts congressional delegation and several members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus called for an investigation into the Bristol County jail riot.[167] Both the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General and the state Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight promised investigations as well,[168] as did Attorney General Maura Healey, who asked for surveillance footage of the incident.[169]
By May 12, nine total detainees and six jail staff had been infected.[170] A week later, the ACLU of Massachusetts announced they were suing [171] to obtain jail records, explaining, “The public deserves to know what happened in Bristol County’s immigration detention facility.” Their statement continued, “That is especially true when the leader of that government institution has been accused of personal misconduct during the incident, and given ongoing controversy about potentially unsafe conditions there.”[172]
Eleven New Bedford area groups have since called on Hodgson to resign[173] but the sheriff waves away their demands and complaints as a “false narrative” from people with a “socialist agenda.”[174]
Hodgson faces re-election in 2022.
Correction: In 2017, a federal judge found Arpaio guilty of criminal contempt for willfully defying a court order banning the targeted detention of individuals because of their immigration status and without state charges. In this case, criminal contempt is a misdemeanor—not a felony. This article has been updated to correct an error in legal nomenclature.
Endnotes
[1] “2017 The Inauguration of Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson,” Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, https://vimeo.com/200716898.
[2] Brian Fraga, “SJC: Bristol County Sheriff Hodgson can’t charge daily fee to inmates,” New Bedford Standard-Times, January 5, 2010, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20100105/News/100109976.
[3] “Massachusetts sheriff offers to have inmates help build Trump’s border wall,” CBS News, January 5, 2017, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/massachusetts-sheriff-offers-to-have-inmat….
[4] “Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson 30 second TV spot,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNSGkSwSshs.
[5] “Obituaries—Anne Marie Allen Hodgson,” The Washington Post, March 20, 2000, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/03/20/obituaries/0d2b51ba-f81a-4ef6-8ac0-aa7de4251b61/.
[6] Tina Alexis Allen, Hiding Out, (Harper Collins, 2018). This memoir, written by Hodgson’s sister, provides details about Hodgson’s family. See “A private Senate bill for Sir John,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, February 4, 2020, https://bccjustice.wordpress.com/2020/02/04/private-bill/.
[7] John Doherty, “Sheriff has waged union battles from both sides,” New Bedford Standard-Times, March 25, 2001, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20010325/news/303259980.
[8] William Corey, “Sheriff Hodgson to quit City Council seat,” New Bedford Standard-Times, June 18, 1997, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/19970618/News/306189983; “Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson,” Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, https://www.bcso-ma.us/meetthesheriff.htm.
[9] Joan Vennochi, “The Sheriff from Trumpachusetts,” Boston Globe, September 22, 2017, https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2017/09/22/the-sheriff-from-trumpachu….
[10] Patrick Collins, “Nelson retiring as sheriff,” New Bedford Standard-Times, April 9, 1997, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/19970409/News/304099995.
[11] “General Law - Part I, Title VI, Chapter 37,” Massachusetts Legislature, February 11, 2020, https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVI/Chapter37.
[12] Judges Hines, et al, “Commonwealth v. Gernrich,” Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, September 8, 2016, https://law.justia.com/cases/massachusetts/supreme-court/2017/sjc-12078….
[13] Brian Fraga, “Inside the Ash Street Jail: A portal into 19th century New Bedford,” New Bedford Standard-Times, December 26, 2010, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20101226/News/12260325.
[14] “Bristol County Sheriff’s Office Facilities,” Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, October 7, 2019, https://bcso-ma.us/facilities.htm.
[15] “The Standard-Times endorses Joseph McIntyre for sheriff,” New Bedford Standard-Times, October 30, 1998, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/19981030/Opinion/310309938.
[16] Nat Hentoff, “A Famous Sheriff Fights Nudity,” Village Voice, August 11, 1998, https://www.villagevoice.com/1998/08/11/a-famous-sheriff-fights-nudity/.
[17] M.V. Moorhead, “He Shot the Sheriff,” Phoenix New Times, July 30, 1998, https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/he-shot-the-sheriff-6421935.
[18] Thomas E. Perez, “United States’ Investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office,” U.S. Department of Justice, December 15, 2011, https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2011/12/15/mcsofindletter12-15-11.pdf.
[19] Meg O’Connor, “ ‘Nation’s Only Female Chain Gang’ Apparently Disbanded,” Phoenix New Times, May 2, 2019, https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/nations-only-female-chain-gang-boa….
[20] Tom Shattuck, “Shattuck: Pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio the right move,” Boston Herald, August 15, 2017, https://www.bostonherald.com/2017/08/15/shattuck-pardoning-sheriff-joe-….
[21] Tom Shattuck, “Shattuck: Pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio the right move,” Boston Herald, August 15, 2017, https://www.bostonherald.com/2017/08/15/shattuck-pardoning-sheriff-joe-arpaio-the-right-move/; Valeria Fernandez, “Arizona’s ‘concentration camp’: why was Tent City kept open for 24 years?” The Guardian, August 21, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/21/arizona-phoenix-concentr….
[22] Michael Kiefer, “The last days of Sheriff Joe Arpaio,” AZ Central, November 9, 2016, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2016/11/09/maricopa-….
[23] Thomas M. Hodgson, “Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson 30 second TV spot,” Tom Hodgson Committee, October 26, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNSGkSwSshs.
[24] Michael Rigby, “Massachusetts Court Enjoins Sheriff from Charging Jail Prisoners Assorted Fees,” Prison Legal News, January 15, 2005, https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2005/jan/15/massachusetts-court-en….
[25] Brian Fraga, “SJC hears arguments in Hodgson policy to charge inmates fees,” SouthCoast Today, November 3, 2009, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091103/NEW….
[26] “SJC says no to inmates fees,” Attleboro Sun Chronicle, January 7, 2010, https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/sjc-says-no-to-inmate-fees/article….
[27] Brandon Sample, “Judge Finds Unconstitutional Conditions at Massachusetts Jail, 11 Years After Suit is Filed,” Prison Legal News, June 15, 2010, https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2010/jun/15/judge-finds-unconstitu….
[28] Jennette Barnes, “Hodgson’s jails fail to document proper air temperatures,” New Bedford Standard-Times, July 26, 2018, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20180726/hodgsons-jails-fail-to-do….
[29] “Facilities Inspection: Bristol County Jail, Ash Street Facility, New Bedford,” Commonwealth of Massachusetts, January 12, 2016, https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2017/01/tw/bristol-ash-street-repo….
[30] Nicholas Gale, “Facility Inspection -Bristol County Jail, Ash Street Facility, New Bedford,” Executive Office of Health and Human Services, June 19, 2017, https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2017/07/zm/bristol-ash-street-repo….
[31] “We Are Humans,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, July 31, 2018, https://bccjustice.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/we-are-humans/.
[32] Michael Bonner, “Inmates refused to eat prepared meals at Bristol County House of Corrections,” New Bedford Standard-Times, July 25, 2018, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20180725/inmates-refused-to-eat-pr….
[33] Jennette Barnes, “Crime and nourishment: An inside look at jail food in Bristol County,” New Bedford Standard-Times, December 15, 2018, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20181215/crime-and-nourishment-ins….
[34] Pearson, Burrell, Givens, et al, “Pearson, Burrell, Givens, Law Offices of Mark Booker v Thomas Hodgson,” Commonwealth of Massachusetts, May 2, 2018, https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/litigation/securus-complaint.pdf.
[35] Monte McCoin, “Massachusetts County Faces Lawsuit Over Phone Fee Kickbacks,” Prison Legal News, August 8, 2018, https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2018/aug/8/massachusetts-county-fa….
[36] Jennette Barnes, “Lawsuit targets high cost of phone calls from jail,” New Bedford Standard-Times, May 4, 2018, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20180504/lawsuit-targets-high-cost….
[37] Curt Brown, “Sheriff to eliminate in-person visits in Dartmouth H of C, moving to video conferencing,” New Bedford Standard-Times, July 21, 2017, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20170721/sheriff-to-eliminate-in-p….
[38] Lucius Couloute, “New Massachusetts Reform Package Aims to Protect In-Person Jail Visits,” Prison Policy Initiative, March 26, 2018, https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2018/03/26/ma_cj_reform18/.
[39] “Bristol County for Correctional Justice Fact Sheet,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, January 1, 2019, https://bccjustice.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/testimonies.pdf.
[40] “CMR.630 Medical Services,” Massachusetts Department of Correction, November 1, 2019, https://www.mass.gov/doc/doc-630-medical-service/download.
[41] Maria Cramer, “Mentally ill inmates sue Bristol sheriff over solitary confinement,” Boston Globe, January 9, 2018, https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/01/09/mentally-ill-inmates-sue-b….
[42] Jenifer McKim, “Behind the Wall: Suicides Mount in Massachusetts County Jails,” New England Center for Investigative Reporting, May 6, 2017, https://web.archive.org/web/20180112223330/http://www.necir.org/2017/05….
[43] Jenifer McKim and Chris Burrell, “Lawsuits add up over Bristol County jail inmate suicides,” Boston Globe, March 8, 2018, https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/03/08/jailsuicides/EOyAfOw6RHUrj….
[44] “Rhetoric, Not Reform: Prosecutors and Pretrial Practices in Suffolk, Middlesex, and Berkshire Counties,” CourtWatch, October 9, 2019, https://www.courtwatchma.org/uploads/4/7/8/9/47895019/rhetoric_not_reform_-_oct._2019.pdf; “More suicides on Tom Hodgson’s watch,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, July 8, 2019, https://bccjustice.wordpress.com/2019/07/08/negligent-homicide/.
[45] See, for example Steve Urbon, “Hodgson responds to questions about Hathaway Road rental,” New Bedford Standard-Times, September 30, 2010, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20100930/News/9300346.
[46] “The Standard-Times endorses Joseph McIntyre for sheriff,” New Bedford Standard-Times, October 30, 1998, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/19981030/Opinion/310309938.
[47] Jim Hand, “Hodgson taking his lumps in sheriff race,” Attleboro Sun Chronicle, November 13, 2009, https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/hodgson-taking-his-lumps-in-sherif….
[48] “CANDIDATE Q&A: Bristol County Sheriff - Week 2, Question 1,” Fall River Herald News, October 11, 2010, https://www.heraldnews.com/x835153187/CANDIDATE-Q-A-Bristol-County-Sher….
[49] “Editorial: Costly power trip for Sheriff Thomas Hodgson,” Press Mentor, December 10, 2008, https://www.pressmentor.com/x1720689341/Editorial-Costly-power-trip-for….
[50] Jack Spillane, “Quinn, Hodgson spar, once again, over sheriff’s legal expenses,” New Bedford Standard-Times, June 20, 2010, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20100620/News/6200338.
[51] Ibid.
[52] Dan McDonald, “Former judge quits new post amid internal investigation,” New Bedford Standard-Times, October 6, 2011, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20111006/News/110060359.
[53] Suzanne Bump, “Audit of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office,” Massachusetts State Auditor, February 13, 2019, https://www.mass.gov/audit/audit-of-the-bristol-county-sheriffs-office.
[54] “Travels with Tom Hodgson,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, September 8, 2018, https://bccjustice.wordpress.com/2018/09/08/travels-hodgson-2/; “BCSO Travel Documents from FOIA Request,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, August 31, 2018, https://tiny.cc/sheriff-travel.
[55] “While Courting Sheriffs, FAIR Flaunts Access to Administration,” Political Research Associates, December 5, 2019, https://www.politicalresearch.org/2019/12/05/while-courting-sheriffs-fa….
[56] John Doherty, “The Hodgson empire,” New Bedford Standard-Times, August 6, 2000, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20000806/News/308069996.
[57] Ibid.
[58] Ibid.
[59] John Doherty, “The Hodgson empire,” New Bedford Standard-Times, August 6, 2000, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20000806/News/308069996.
[60] Lee Charlton, telephone interview, September 9, 2019.
[61] John Ellement and Douglas Belkin, “City, county sheriff in turf tussle,” Boston Globe, September 26, 2003, https://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2003/09/26/city_county_sheriff_in_turf_tussle/.
[62] Jo C. Goode, “Correia’s plan to increase Fall River police ranks meets opposition,” Fall River Herald News, April 20, 2017, https://www.heraldnews.com/news/20170420/correias-plan-to-increase-fall….
[63] Jeffery T. Gregory, “Letter to the Editor: Putting sheriff in charge of city jail a ridiculous idea,” Fall River Herald News, April 25, 2017, https://www.heraldnews.com/opinion/20170425/letter-to-editor-putting-sh….
[64] John Doherty, “The Hodgson empire,” New Bedford Standard-Times, August 6, 2000, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20000806/News/308069996.
[65] Thomas E. Perez, “United States’ Investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” U.S. Department of Justice, December 15, 2011, https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2011/12/15/mcso_findletter_12-15-11.pdf.
[66] Dylan Smith, “Napolitano cuts Arpaio’s access to ICE programs,” Tucson Sentinel, December 15, 2011, http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/121511_arpaio_dhs/napolitano-cuts-arpaios-access-ice-programs/.
[67] Aaron Nicodemus, “New Dartmouth jail facility to house illegal immigrants,” New Bedford Standard-Times, April 2, 2007, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20070402/News/704020337.
[68] “Out of money, sheriff gets good news,” Fall River Herald News, May 7, 2009, https://www.heraldnews.com/article/20090507/NEWS/305078655.
[69] Joseph DeNucci, “Independent State Auditor’s Report,” Massachusetts State Auditor, January 1, 2010, https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/08/ux/201014713s.pdf.
[70] Brock N. Cordeiro, “Patrick Administration Playing Politics with County Sheriff’s Budgets?” Red Mass Group, March 5, 2009, https://archive.vn/XITss; Muzaffar Chishti, Claire Bergeron, “Supreme Court Upholds Legal Arizona Workers Act with Limited Implications for Other State Immigration Laws,” Migration Policy Institute, June 15, 2011, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/supreme-court-upholds-legal-arizona-workers-act-limited-implications-other-state-immigration; Will Richmond, “Sheriff Hodgson contends Gov. Patrick’s budget veto,” Taunton Daily Gazette, March 6, 2012, https://www.tauntongazette.com/article/20120306/News/303069912.
[71] Brian Fraga, “Sheriff Hodgson on ‘Secure Communities’ and undocumented immigrants,” New Bedford Standard-Times, June 9, 2011, http://blogs.southcoasttoday.com/new-bedford-crime/2011/06/09/sheriff-hodgson-on-secure-communities-and-undocumented-immigrants.
[72] Andy Metzger, “Gov. Deval Patrick to uphold Secure Communities program in Massachusetts,” MassLive, March 24, 2019, https://www.masslive.com/politics/2012/05/gov_deval_patrick_to_uphold_s….
[73] “John Tanton’s Network,” Southern Poverty Law Center, December 31, 2015, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/john-t….
[74] Ibid.
[75] Swathi Shanmugasundaram, “John Tanton’s Legacy,” Southern Poverty Law Center, July 18, 2019, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/07/18/john-tantons-legacy.
[76] “About FAIR,” Federation for American Immigration Reform, https://web.archive.org/web/20200703131834/https://www.fairus.org/about-fair.
[77] “About the Center for Immigration Studies,” Center for Immigration Studies, https://web.archive.org/web/20200715011107/https://cis.org/Center-For-Immigration-Studies-Background.
[78] “History of NumbersUSA,” NumbersUSA, https://web.archive.org/web/20200703154618/https://www.numbersusa.com/about/history.
[79] Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime, https://web.archive.org/web/20200612223233/https://www.aviac.us/.
[80] “Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform,” Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform, https://archive.vn/k1dnz.
[81] “Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities,” Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities, https://archive.vn/wip/4anVK.
[82] Jessica Pishko, “The Power of Sheriffs: Explained,” The Appeal, January 4, 2019, https://theappeal.org/the-power-of-sheriffs-an-explainer/.
[83] 104th Congress, 2nd Session, “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996,” U.S. House of Representatives, September 24, 1996, https://www.congress.gov/104/crpt/hrpt828/CRPT-104hrpt828.pdf.
[84] Cloee Cooper, “Support for Oregon’s Ballot Measure 105 Reveals Collaboration Between Right-Wing Sheriffs and Anti-Immigrant Networks,” Political Research Associates, November 2, 2018, https://www.politicalresearch.org/2018/11/02/support-for-oregons-ballot….
[85] Ray Porter and Dan Stein, “FAIR Annual Report 2011,” Federation for American Immigration Reform, December 31, 2011, https://fairus.org/sites/default/files/2017-08/FAIR_2011AnnualReport.pdf.
[86] Gabriel San Roman, “FAIR’s Anti-Immigrant Extremist Behind OC’s Anti-Sanctuary State Revolt Has OC Roots,” Orange County Weekly, April 20, 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20191129094109/https://ocweekly.com/fairs-a….
[87] “99.Miscelaneous Records,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, August 30, 2018, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HylDWf5A99vo0ufNZZxJRSc8tq-LY9WE/view?….
[88] Luciano Guerra, “Northern sheriffs get close-up look at border crisis,” Progress Times, July 25, 2014, https://www.oregonir.org/issues/northern-sheriffs-get-close-look-border….
[89] Ryan Lovelace, “Sheriffs Plan Massive Gathering in Washington to Oppose Executive Amnesty,” National Review, November 10, 2014, https://archive.vn/ix0Fn.
[90] Thomas M. Hodgson, “Organizing letter on BCSO Letterhead,” National Review Cloud storage, November 10, 2014, https://web.archive.org/web/20200621065641/https://c3.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/SheriffsAgainstAmnesty.pdf; Leo Hohmann, “Sheriffs against amnesty to march on Washington,” WND, November 9, 2014, https://www.wnd.com/2014/11/sheriffs-against-amnesty-to-march-on-washington/.
[91] “Sheriffs head to the border,” Federation for American Immigration Reform, July 17, 2014, https://www.immigrationreform.com/2014/07/17/sheriffs-head-to-the-border/; “99.Miscelaneous Records,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, August 30, 2018, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HylDWf5A99vo0ufNZZxJRSc8tq-LY9WE/view?….
[92] “FAIR border summit to introduce sheriffs nationwide to border vigilante group,” Imagine 2050, September 24, 2015, https://web.archive.org/web/20181207101638/http://imagine2050.newcomm.o….
[93] David Holthouse, “Minutemen, other Anti-Immigrant Militia Groups Stake Out Arizona Border,” Southern Poverty Law Center, June 27, 2005, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2005/minute….
[94] Tucker Reals, “Minutemen Member on Trial in Murder of Girl, 9,” CBS News, January 26, 2011, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minutemen-member-on-trial-in-murder-of-gir….
[95] Simon Romero, “Militia in New Mexico Detains Asylum Seekers at Gunpoint,” The New York Times, April 18, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/us/new-mexico-militia.html; Cloee Cooper, “New Mexico’s Constitutional Sheriffs Pave the Way for Militias Patrolling the Border,” Political Research Associates, April 29, 2019, https://www.politicalresearch.org/2019/04/29/new-mexicos-constitutional-sheriffs-pave-the-way-for-militias-patrolling-the-border.
[96] Ken MacLeod, “Massachusetts Sheriffs Join Texas-Mexico Border Tour,” WBZ-TV, July 15, 2014, https://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/07/15/massachusetts-sheriffs-join-texa….
[97] “FAIR’s Susan Tully Promotes Bigotry and Conspiracies on Radio Show,” Anti-Defamation League, January 25, 2013, https://www.adl.org/blog/fairs-susan-tully-promotes-bigotry-and-conspir….
[98] Josh Glasstetter, “Anti-Immigrant Flyers Distributed in Nebraska Town Voting Today on Housing Ordinance,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 14, 2014, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2014/02/11/anti-immigrant-flyers-di….
[99] “Activists with Extremist Ties Behind Oregon Immigration Referendum,” Anti-Defamation League, October 30, 2014, https://www.adl.org/news/article/activists-with-extremist-ties-behind-oregon-immigration-referendum; “Another generation of anti-immigrant activists joins the increasingly virulent nativist movement,” Southern Poverty Law Center, March 1, 2018, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2008/profiles-20-nativist-leaders; Stephen Lemons, “Anti-Heroes,” Phoenix New Times, September 13, 2007, https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/anti-heroes-6404651; “‘America First’ Summit on National Security,” The Official Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, October 15, 2005, https://www.minutemanhq.com/hq/summit.php; SJ Reidhead, “FAIR’s New Anti-Hispanic GOP Timebomb,” The Pink Flamingo, August 23, 2011, http://www.thepinkflamingoblog.com/2011/08/23/fairs-new-anti-hispanic-gop-timebomb/.
[100] “FAIR Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2019,” Federation for American Immigration Reform, October 23, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB5giuktCaQ; Zachary Mueller, “Top Trump Administration Officials, over a Dozen Congressmen Attend Events Organized by Hate Group,” Americas’ Voice, September 28, 2019, https://americasvoice.org/blog/htfttf-2019/; Charlie James, “Charlie James interviews Sheriff Thomas Hodgson,” WTMA Radio Charleston, SC, June 23, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Roxp8p2UVg; Thomas M. Hodgson, “Why I Support FAIR,” Federation for American Immigration Reform, August 2, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je2OlEEsU64; Swathi Shanmugasundaram, “Acting ICE Director attends annual media event of anti-immigrant hate group FAIR,” Southern Poverty Law Center, September 12, 2018, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/09/12/acting-ice-director-atte….
[101] “Board of Directors,” Federation for American Immigration Reform, September 1, 2019, https://www.fairus.org/about-fair/board-directors.
[102] Heidi Beirich, “Hate groups like Center for Immigration Studies want you to believe they’re mainstream,” Southern Poverty Law Center, March 23, 2017, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/03/23/hate-groups-center-immigration-studies-want-you-believe-they%E2%80%99re-mainstream; Mark Krikorian, Andrew R. Arthur, Dan Cadman, Thomas Hodgson, and Bryan Griffith, “Panel Video: Should ICE Release or Continue Detention for Aliens during Pandemic?” Center for Immigration Studies, April 14, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20200429081200/https://cis.org/Video/Panel-Should-ICE-Release-or-Continue-Detention-Aliens-during-Pandemic.
[103] Thomas M. Hodgson, interview with author, September 6, 2019.
[104] David Ehrens, “Freedom of Information Requests,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, July 2, 2019, https://tiny.cc/bccj-foia.
[105] Heidi Beirich, “Hate groups like Center for Immigration Studies want you to believe they’re mainstream,” Southern Poverty Law Center, March 23, 2017, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/03/23/hate-groups-center-immig….
[106] Alex Nowrasteh, “CIS Exaggerates the Cost of Immigrant Welfare Use,” Cato Institute, May 10, 2016, https://www.cato.org/blog/cis-exaggerates-cost-immigrant-welfare-use.
[107] “Nativist Group Misrepresents Facts Again to Support Detaining Children and Families,” Immigration Impact, June 29, 2015, https://immigrationimpact.com/2015/06/29/nativist-group-misrepresents-f….
[108] Swathi Shanmugasundaram, “Center for Immigration Studies debunked,” Southern Poverty Law Center, October 2, 2017, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/10/02/center-immigration-studi….
[109] “Meet Jessica Vaughan, the anti-immigrant movement’s representative at tomorrow’s Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on DACA,” Southern Poverty Law Center, October 2, 2017, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/10/02/meet-jessica-vaughan-ant….
[110] Mark Krikorian, “What to do about Haiti?” National Review, January 21, 2010, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-do-about-haiti-mark-krikoria….
[111] “The Social Contract Press,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 11, 2020, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/social-co….
[112] “Peter Brimelow,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 11, 2020, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/peter-brimelow; “Video presentations from the September 30, 2012 Social Contract Press Writers Workshop - introduction,” The Social Contract Press, https://web.archive.org/web/20170703085231/http://www.thesocialcontract.com/video/tsc-writers-workshop-2012.html
[113] “Extremist Group Info: VDARE,” Southern Poverty Law Center, September 24, 2019, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/vdare.
[114] “Jeff Sessions is No Longer Allowed to Talk About Special Interests,” America’s Voice, July 17, 2013, https://americasvoice.org/blog/jeff-sessions-is-no-longer-allowed-to-ta….
[115] Jeff Sessions and David Vitter, “Immigration Policy Reform,” C-SPAN, April 18, 2013, https://www.c-span.org/video/?312241-1/immigration-policy-reform.
[116] Ted Hesson, “Immigration Reform in One Room, Bed Bugs in Another,” ABC Univision, April 18, 2013, https://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/Politics/immigration-reform-room-b….
[117] Jessica Vaughan and Thomas M. Hodgson, “Testimony: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement,” C-SPAN, March 28, 2017, https://www.c-span.org/video/?426090-1/lawmakers-spar-immigration-polic….
[118] “The usual suspects,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, January 27, 2020, https://bccjustice.wordpress.com/2020/01/27/usual-suspects/.
[119] Mark Krikorian and Thomas M. Hodgson, “Panel Transcript: Should ICE Release or Continue Detention for Aliens during Pandemic?” Center for Immigration Studies, April 15, 2020, https://cis.org/Transcript/Panel-Should-ICE-Release-or-Continue-Detenti….
[120] “AVIAC Board,” Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime, February 11, 2020, https://www.aviac.us/about-us/the-board/.
[121] Susan Tully personal Facebook page, Facebook, June 28, 2017, https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/hw_2018-05-21_blog.png.
[122] “The Remembrance Project,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 11, 2020, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/remembran….
[123] Sabine Durden, “AVIAC Comes to Washington DC!” Dom Hugs, September 30, 2019, https://domhugs.org/aviac-comes-to-washington-dc/.
[124] Tom Joyce, “Sanctuary State Bill Opponents Say It Would Make Massachusetts Less Safe,” New Boston Post, January 25, 2020, https://newbostonpost.com/2020/01/25/sanctuary-state-bill-opponents-say….
[125] Felicia Gans, “Trump backers voice support for his immigration order,” Boston Globe, January 28, 2017, https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/01/28/trump-supporters-voice-sup….
[126] Lou Murray, “Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities,” Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities, February 11, 2020, https://www.facebook.com/Bostonians-Against-Sanctuary-Cities-2852829652….
[127] O’Ryan Johnson, “Bristol sheriff speaks at anti-sanctuary cities meeting,” Boston Herald, May 25, 2017, https://www.bostonherald.com/2017/05/25/bristol-sheriff-speaks-at-anti-….
[128] “Once Again, Number of ‘Nativist Extremist’ Groups Falls,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 19, 2017, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2017/once-a….
[129] Michael Verseckes, “Weymouth, MA resident to patrol border with MMP,” Weymouth Town Online, March 30, 2005, https://www.alipac.us/f12/weymouth-ma-resident-patrol-border-mmp-713/.
[130] “Armed Vigilante Activities in Arizona,” Anti-Defamation League, April 25, 2005, https://www.adl.org/news/article/armed-vigilante-activities-in-arizona.
[131] John Thompson, “Reframing the Immigration Debate - A proposal for compensated repatriation of unlawful immigrants,” Social Contract Press, Summer 2016, https://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc264/tsc-26-4-thompson.shtml; Evan Lips, “Sanctuary city defenders decry bill to block state aid,” New Boston Post, December 10, 2015, https://archive.vn/E5lCJ.
[132] “Jason Richwine,” Wikipedia, February 11, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Richwine.
[133] Curt Brown, “Mass. Sheriff Hodgson Leads Crowdfunding Effort to Fund Border Wall,” Providence Journal, September 8, 2018, https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180906/mass-sheriff-hodgson-le….
[134] Alejandro J. Beutel, “Antigovernment Militia Leader Organizing Nationwide Protests This Weekend,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 21, 2019, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/antigovernment-militia-leader-organ….
[135] “ADF Washington DC Rally Feb 23, 2019,” American Defence Force, February 23, 2019, https://web.archive.org/web/20190125144345/https:/americandefenceforce.com/dc-rally-feb-23%2C-2019; Fund the Wall, July 28, 2020, https://archive.vn/wip/zbMJO.
[136] Quentin Kramer, “Build The Wall! Quentin Kramer and Mike Cutler join Southern Sense Talk Radio,” Southern Sense, November 20, 2018, https://www.blogtalkradio.com/southernsense/2018/11/20/build-the-wall-q….
[137] Jeremy Messina, “About Us,” Fund the Wall, September 1, 2019, https://www.fundthewall.com/about-us/.
[138] “Hodgson and the White Supremacist agenda,” Bristol County for Correctional Justice, January 13, 2019, https://bccjustice.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/white-agenda/.
[139] Penny Starr, “While Congress Dallies, Coalition Ready to Write Check for Border Wall,” Breitbart News, January 21, 2019, https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/21/while-congress-dallies-co….
[140] Thomas M. Hodgson, interview with author, September 6, 2019.
[141] Lauren Carroll, “Fact-checking Trump’s claim that thousands in New Jersey cheered when World Trade Center tumbled,” PolitiFact, November 22, 2015, https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/22/donald-….
[142] “New Documentary Portrays Negative View of Immigration in the U.S.,” Anti-Defamation League, August 3, 2012, https://www.adl.org/blog/new-documentary-portrays-negative-view-of-immi….
[143] Rabbi Jonathan Hausman, “Synagogue notice: Filmmaker to speak on immigration at Stoughton synagogue,” Stoughton Journal, May 5, 2015, https://stoughton.wickedlocal.com/article/20150505/NEWS/150507909.
[144] Josh Nathan-Kazis, “Synagogue Hosts Anti-Islam Speakers Again, and 100 Interfaith Clergy Protest,” The Forward, November 2, 2016, https://forward.com/news/353234/clergy-protest-anti-islam-speakers-at-boston-synagogue/.
[145] Thomas M. Hodgson, interview with author, September 6, 2019.
[146] Gabe Meadow, “Profile on the Right: ACT for America,” Political Research Associates, March 1, 2018, https://www.politicalresearch.org/2018/03/01/profile-on-the-right-act-f….
[147] “ACT for America,” Anti-Defamation League, March 6, 2017, https://www.adl.org/resources/profiles/act-for-america.
[148] “ACT for America,” Southern Poverty Law Center, October 26, 2019, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/act-america; “Will ACT for America Provide An Outlet for the ‘Alt-Right’ Post-Charlottesville?” Southern Poverty Law Center, August 18, 2017, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/08/18/will-act-america-provide-outlet-alt-right-post-charlottesville.
[149] Gabe Meadow, “Profile on the Right: ACT for America,” Political Research Associates, March 1, 2018, https://www.politicalresearch.org/2018/03/01/profile-on-the-right-act-for-america
[150] “Meet the 11 biggest white nationalists speaking at CPAC 2020,” Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, https://www.bendthearc.us/meet_the_11_biggest_white_nationalists_speaki…; “2020 Conservative Conference Features Over 30 Antisemitic Speakers,” How to Fight Antisemitism, https://www.howtofightantisemitism.com/timeline/cpac-2020.
[151] Swathi Shanmugasundaram, “Anti-Sharia law bills in the United States,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 5, 2018, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/02/05/anti-sharia-law-bills-un….
[152] Dana Liebelson, “Anti-Sharia Group With Close Ties To Donald Trump Has A Nazi Problem,” Huffington Post, October 2, 2017, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-sharia-group-with-close-ties-to-trump-has-a-nazi-problem_n_59d2a231e4b048a44324852b.
[153] Sandy Fraizer, “Brigitte Gabriel and Roger Hedgecock Available for Interviews LIVE from FAIR in D.C.,” SandyPR.com, September 9, 2009, https://sandypr.blogspot.com/2009/09/brigitte-gabriel-and-roger-hedgeco….
[154] Amy Brittain and Abigail Hauslohner, “Anti-sharia group offers donors a private tour and cocktails at Trump hotel,” The Washington Post, June 20, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/anti-sharia-group-offers-donors-a-private-tour-and-cocktails-at-trump-hotel/2017/06/20/0b758b86-5138-11e7-be25-3a519335381c_story.html; “Why I Support FAIR by Sheriff Thomas Hodgson | Hold Their Feet to the Fire (2017),” Federation for American Immigration Reform, August 2, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je2OlEEsU64; Zachary Mueller, “Top Trump Administration Officials, over a Dozen Congressmen Attend Events Organized by Hate Group,” America’s Voice, September 28, 2019; “FAIR- Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2019,” Facebook Event, https://archive.vn/wip/jvKys.
[155] Data for Justice Project, “State Audit of Bristol Sheriff,” ACLU of Massachusetts, December 6, 2019, https://data.aclum.org/public-records/state-audit-of-bristol-sheriff/.
[156] Michael Edison Hayden, “Stephen Miller’s Affinity for White Nationalism Revealed in Leaked Emails,” Southern Poverty Law Center, November 12, 2019, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/11/12/stephen-millers-affinity….
[157] Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Hardliners gain key posts at Trump’s citizenship and immigration services agency,” CBS News, November 21, 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-immigration-policy-posts-hardliners-….
[158] “Hodgson Emails,” Hodgson Emails, December 23, 2019, https://hodgsonemails.wordpress.com/.
[159] Fr. Richard Roy, et al., “SouthCoast faith leaders deeply troubled by Sheriff Hodgson’s action,” New Bedford Standard-Times, February 7, 2020, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/opinion/20200207/letter-southcoast-fait….
[160] Shannon Dooling, “ ‘They Fear That They’re Going To Die Here’; ICE Detainees In Bristol County Speak Out On COVID-19 Concerns,” WBUR News, March 24, 2020, https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/03/24/bristol-county-detainees-immigrati….
[161] Shannon Dooling, “Class Action Suit Calls For Release Of ICE Detainees In Bristol County Amid Coronavirus Fears,” WBUR News, March 27, 2020, https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/03/27/class-action-suit-calls-for-release-of-ice-detainees-in-bristol-county-amid-coronavirus-fears; “Warren, Markey, Kennedy among those suggesting Sheriff Hodgson release ICE detainees over COVID-19,” Fall River Reporter, April 6, 2020, https://fallriverreporter.com/warren-markey-kennedy-among-those-suggest…
[162] “Coronavirus Suit Filed Against ICE And Bristol County Sheriff,” Lawyers for Civil Rights, March 27, 2020, http://lawyersforcivilrights.org/our-impact/immigrant-rights/coronaviru….
[163] Shannon Dooling, “Judge: Bristol Sheriff And ICE Likely Violated Rights Of Detainees; Orders COVID-19 Testing,” WBUR News, May 7, 2020, https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/05/07/bristol-sheriff-ice-detainees-viol….
[164] At the end of March, Young indicated that he might release some detainees, and by April he began ordering the release of detainees. See Sarah Betancourt, “Judge asks for list of ICE detainees for potential release,” Commonwealth Magazine, March 30, 2020, https://commonwealthmagazine.org/criminal-justice/judge-asks-for-list-of-ice-detainees-for-potential-release/; Steph Solis, “Coronavirus: Federal judge orders release of 3 immigrant detainees, says Immigration and Customs Enforcement released 6 more,” MassLive, April 3, 2020, https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2020/04/coronavirus-federal-judge-orders-release-of-3-immigrant-detainees-says-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-released-6-more.html; Shannon Dooling, “Federal Judge Releases ICE Detainees From Bristol County On A Rolling Basis Due To COVID-19 Concerns,” WBUR, April 8, 2020, https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/04/08/judge-young-immigration-detainees-….
[165] Thomas M. Hodgson, “Prisoner Release Alert System,” Bristol County Sheriff, April 16, 2020, https://bcso-ma.us/news/prisoneralert/4-16-20alertsystem.pdf.
[166] Mary Serreze, “Lawyer: Hodgson Assaulted ICE Detainee Ahead of Violent Conflict,” WBSM News, May 4, 2020, https://wbsm.com/lawyer-says-sheriff-hodgson-assaulted-ice-detainee-ahe….
[167] “Warren, Markey, Keating, Kennedy, Colleagues Seek Federal Investigation of Violent Incident at Bristol County Jail,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, May 6, 2020, https://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/warren-markey-keating-k….
[168] Sarah Betancourt, “Several probes launched into violence at Bristol County Jail,” Commonwealth Magazine, May 5, 2020, https://commonwealthmagazine.org/immigration/several-probes-launched-of….
[169] Arianna MacNeill, “‘They went crazy’: Phone call recordings shed light on alleged brawl involving ICE detainees,” Boston Globe, May 7, 2020, https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2020/05/07/ice-detainees-bristo….
[170] “Eight more Bristol inmates, ICE detainee and six more staff test positive for coronavirus,” Fall River Herald News, May 12, 2020, https://www.heraldnews.com/news/20200512/eight-more-bristol-inmates-ice….
[171] Matthew R. Segal et al, “American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Inc. v. Bristol County Sheriff’s Office,” ACLU of Massachusetts, May 18, 2020, https://www.aclum.org/sites/default/files/fielddocuments/complaint-aclumv._bcso.pdf.
[172] “ACLU sues Bristol County Sheriffs Office for information related to violent incident in ICE detention,” American Civil Liberties Union, May 18, 2020, https://www.aclum.org/en/news/aclu-sues-bristol-county-sheriffs-office-….
[173] “Progressive groups call for Hodgson to resign,” New Bedford Standard-Times, May 13, 2020, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20200513/progressive-groups-call-f….
[174] Mary Serreze, “Lawyer: Hodgson Assaulted ICE Detainee Ahead of Violent Conflict,” WBSM News, May 4, 2020, https://wbsm.com/lawyer-says-sheriff-hodgson-assaulted-ice-detainee-ahe….