We can now thank Donald Trump for one of the greatest waste of resources by an Ohio elected official.
Sheriff Richard Jones of Butler County has made not effort to deny his love of Donald Trump’s “deport everyone” approach to immigration reform. (Jones does not, it should be added, love John Kasich.)
So we should not have been surprised when Jones announced on Twitter that he has assigned a detective to crack down on employers in his county who hire undocumented immigrant workers.
I am assigning one detective to take information from people who report on illegal s or employers who hire and violate the law.
— Richard K. Jones (@butlersheriff) August 25, 2015
This was announced with Jones’ usual subtlety:
Time to start again. Report the violators pic.twitter.com/69AL6xcm5i — Richard K. Jones (@butlersheriff) August 25, 2015
But surprised we are, because Jones’ policies match Trump’s in vagueness and ignorance of existing laws and the Constitution. Or just plain-old ignorance.
Want proof? Take at look at the image in Jones’ tweet. Having a hard time reading the text of that image Jones’ tweeted? Especially the part of which laws would be broken? Us too. We think it is intentional – Jones’ does not want to acknowledge that hiring an undocumented immigrant worker is not actually a violation of Ohio law.
Under Federal Law, it is illegal for companies to hire anyone who is not authorized to work in the United States. That is why we all have to fill out those I-9 forms. A company that does not complete an I-9 Form on behalf of each employee, or otherwise violates this law, faces possible fines or, in some cases, criminal penalties.
Under Ohio Law: Nothing. This unlike Jones’ grandstanding, makes sense. Immigration law, the Supreme Court has said, is a federal concern. In Arizona v. United States, the Court struck down efforts by Arizona to do what Jones wants, which is have states enforce strict immigration laws. 132 S.Ct. 2491 (2002).
What we do know is that life must be good in Butler County if a full time detective can be assigned to investigate violations of a non-existent law. At a minimum, the money could be better spent cracking down on law enforcement officers who violate the law against putting squirrels in pants for the purposes of gambling.
