SALT LAKE CITY — A letter sent to President Joe Biden regarding the southern border of the United States has received nearly 300 signatures from Sheriffs across the country asking for change.
The letter titled, ‘Help America’s Sheriffs Keep Our Neighborhoods and Communities Safe by Halting Illegal Immigration,’ asks President Biden “to reverse course and help us protect our communities by securing the southern border.”
Iron County Sheriff Ken Carpenter is the lone Utah Sheriff to sign the letter.
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“By allowing people to come across our border unchecked we’re inviting a very dangerous situation for the nation as a whole and for the safety and security of our people,” said Sheriff Carpenter. “There’s a lot of problems that come into our nation, that aren’t necessarily immigrants themselves that do have to do with organized crime and people that do want to our country harm.”
Others we reached out to say they hadn’t seen the letter until FOX 13 shared it with them.
Referenced in the letter is the nations public safety potentially being impacted by unchecked illegal immigration, with examples of crime side effects such as transnational gangs, guns, dangerous drugs and human trafficking.
The Biden Administration has responded to the situation at the border several times,emphasizing that “the border is not open.”
“I support it, I support the borders, I support the other Sheriff’s. I believe that we have to protect other people,” said Elko County (NV) Sheriff Aitor Narvaiza, who immigrated with his family to the United State from Spain. Narvaiza says that Elko doesn’t have most of the issues that are discussed as potential criminal side effects, but he does agree with the protection of towns that lie along the border. “We (Sheriffs) took an Oath to protect the people of the United States and I don’t believe we’re doing that right now.”
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FOX 13 reached out to more than a dozen border counties in California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico that were not included on the letter. Sheriff Brad Coe from Kinney County, Texas responded saying, “This is the first time I have seen this letter. I had seen this prior, there is a very good chance I would have signed it.”
Several Sheriffs in Utah were alerted of the letter from Fox13, but none had any comment on the situation. The letter itself originated from a Sheriff's Department in Massachusetts that sent it to hundreds of contacts, but not all the Sheriffs in the country. They told Fox13 that it was sent intended to be shared with other Sheriffs, but it appears that not all Sheriffs (from more than 3,000 counties nationwide) saw the letter.
Click here to read the full letter.
