As the U.S. engages in a long overdue national conversation on law enforcement’s role in upholding White supremacy, PRA has mapped the significant influence of far-right and anti-immigrant networks on county sheriffs.
Targeting local sheriffs and other law enforcement is an effort by FAIR to complement this direct access to the administration and develop support for its agenda outside the Beltway.
Sheriffs are elected at the county level, and in most cases operate without any direct oversight. This presents an opportunity for White nationalists and other right-wing movements to build power and influence.
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) was founded o organize county sheriffs around a mission similar to refuse to enforce laws that they believe are unconstitutional.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is an anti-immigrant group founded in 1979 and is currently one of the United States’s leading anti-immigrant organizations.
Updated 8.11.20: PRA and Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR) have created a map as a resource for activists, journalists and researchers, to place the threat of the far-right showing up at racial justice protests.
To keep our movements safe, we all need to better understand who these paramilitaries are, what threats they pose, and what to do when they are present.
