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Republican Thomas Hodgson, the 'Arpaio of the East,' loses Massachusetts sheriff's race [1]
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Date: 2022-11-14
So much of that was trademark Arpaio, who brought back chain gangs and forced detained men to wear pink underwear in order to humiliate them. Joe knew his roasting hot tent city was such a hellish, inhumane torture device, that he admitted it was a “concentration camp.” Arpaio faced his own electoral defeat earlier this year, when he lost the race for mayor of Fountain Hills, Arizona. One day a powerful, corrupt sheriff, and the next can’t even get elected mayor of his own town. How the mighty have fallen.
But back to Hodgson’s defeat. Bolts reports that Heroux “performed particularly well in New Bedford, home of one of the oldest and most notorious jails in the nation. It has been the subject of lawsuits, protests and calls for a permanent shutdown by advocates.” Hodgson’s jails have seen abhorrent suicide rates, and loved ones of detained people who have lost their lives in them have accused Hodgson’s department of basically just letting it happen, the report said.
x This is a huge win! Defeating “America’s most anti-immigrant sheriff” after he took it after Arpaio was voted out. Hodgson sits on the board of the @splcenter designated hate group FAIR.
Shout out to @BCCJustice who has been calling out Hodgson's injustices for years.
https://t.co/NGJ5IFNdue — Zachary.A.Mueller (@ZacharyAMueller) November 9, 2022
At least 22 have died since 2006, including Mark Trafton. A former cellmate told Bolts last month that Trafton had been expressing suicidal ideations so alarming that no fewer than three guards were alerted to his behavior. But following his death, the jail made it seem like it “came out of nowhere,” Bolts reported.
Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts Executive Director Elizabeth Matos told Bolts last month that she didn’t know why Hodgson was “not as famous as Arpaio. But he should be.” And while Hodgson’s defeat represents a major win, activists who helped ouster him still have work ahead of them. Heroux said he’d maybe work with ICE again, nor has he committed to shutting down the New Bedford jail. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ordered ICE to end its 287(g) agreement with the county last year.
x Great to see that Hodgson was defeated! Important to note that ICE under Biden ended 287g & detention in Bristol County & similarly after Obama ended Arpaio’s 287g program he was eventually ousted. The federal govt must stop propping up racist sheriffs
https://t.co/XMQd1CDwJN — Silky Shah (@silkys13) November 11, 2022
In nearby Barnstable County, Buckley campaigned on ending the flawed 287(g) agreement, which allows local law enforcement to cosplay as mass deportation agents. Barnstable County is the final locality in the commonwealth to still hold such an agreement. In a Q&A with The Enterprise earlier this month, Buckley said that helping enforce federal immigration law “is not the role of the Barnstable County sheriff,” and said the agreement “does not make Barnstable County safer.”
The commonwealth also defeated anti-immigrant Republican gubernatorial nominee Geoff Diehl, and rejected the GOP-led measure seeking to repeal state law opening driver’s licenses to undocumented residents. In states where other sheriffs have also campaigned and won on ending their ICE agreements, immigrant communities have described relief. Heroux should not be afraid of pursuing humane, pro-immigrant policy within his department. As Buckley and others have shown, it’s a winning issue.
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RELATED STORIES:
'Barnstable’s 287(g) should be discontinued': Massachusetts residents sue over flawed ICE policy
Immigrant communities describe 'relief' after Georgia sheriffs terminate ICE agreements
ICE pledged review of flawed 287(g) agreements more than a year ago, but still no decision
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