An Ohio sheriff this weekend urged residents in his county to collect the addresses of homes sporting signs for Vice President Kamala Harris, arbitrarily suggesting that there would be an influx of undocumented immigrants if she wins the presidential race.<\/p>\n
Bruce Zuchowski, the sheriff of Portage County who is seeking reelection, made the incendiary remarks Friday in two identical posts on his personal and professional Facebook accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say \u2026 write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!\u201d Zuchowski (R) said. That way, he said, when undocumented immigrants \u2014 which he referred to as a \u201clocust\u201d \u2014 flooded in, \u201cWe\u2019ll already have the addresses of their New families \u2026 who supported their arrival!\u201d<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s posts sparked tension across Portage County, which President Donald Trump carried by 12 points in the 2020 election. Some residents accused Zuchowski of voter intimidation ahead of November\u2019s election. One Republican official described the post as \u201cbullying\u201d and stepped down from a role with a county GOP committee, the Portager reported.<\/p>\n
Alongside his caption, Zuchowski posted photos of Fox News coverage showing footage from Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colo. \u2014 two cities that have been in the national spotlight in recent weeks as former president Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have publicly repeated baseless, inflammatory claims about the immigrant communities there.<\/p>\n
Comments are limited on both of Zuchowski\u2019s posts. He did not immediately respond to The Washington Post\u2019s requests for comment Monday evening.<\/p>\n
In Monday posts on X, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio condemned Zuchowski\u2019s comments, adding that putting up political signs was \u201cmost decidedly, protected core First Amendment speech.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the sitting sheriff of Portage County to be engaging in the very type of behavior he\u2019s meant to combat is despicable,\u201d the organization wrote.<\/p>\n
Since Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket in July, she and Trump have publicly criticized each other\u2019s border and immigration policies. Republicans have been lashing out against Harris by characterizing her as a failed \u201cborder czar.\u201d Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden directed Harris to address the root causes of migration, but she was never put in charge of the border. Harris and the Democratic Party have cited the messaging of the far-right Project 2025, a proposal including mass deportations that Trump has tried to distance himself from, to dissuade voters from supporting a second Trump term.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, Trump and Vance have taken the immigration-policy-based criticisms to a new level by repeating unsubstantiated comments about Haitian immigrants in Springfield. They falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in the town.<\/p>\n
During the presidential debate last week, Trump repeated the Springfield rumor. Though he was fact-checked by a moderator \u2014 Ohio officials have denied the claims \u2014 it was too late.<\/p>\n
The rumor had already spiraled into an onslaught of racist memes and anti-immigrant sentiments online. In the days since the debate, Springfield has received threats of violence. Schools, the city hall and other government buildings were evacuated last week after bomb threats.<\/p>\n
Of the TV news photos Zuchowski posted Friday, one showed Springfield with the chyron: \u201cKamala\u2019s open borders are destroying small towns.\u201d Zuchowski wrote that if residents made note of the homes with Harris campaign signage, they would \u201calready have the addresses\u201d of immigrants who came to Portage County after the election. He also took a jab at Harris\u2019s laugh, another dig Trump and his allies have used against the vice president.<\/p>\n
The posts stoked fear across Portage County residents, said Reney Romine, president of the county\u2019s NAACP chapter. Portage County, which is about 180 miles northeast of Clark County, where Springfield is located, is a predominantly White area with lower-than-average immigration.<\/p>\n
Since Sunday, Romine said she\u2019s received calls and texts \u201cconstantly\u201d from community members about the Facebook posts. They\u2019ve told her they\u2019re considering removing their yard signs. Some have said they feel unsure now about requesting help from the sheriff\u2019s office. Others are worried about their safety while casting their ballot on Election Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to hear,\u201d Romine said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony Badalamenti, a Republican county commissioner, said in a video that he would resign from the county\u2019s Republican Central Committee, according to the Portager.<\/p>\n
Zuchowski\u2019s call to write down addresses, Badalamenti said, \u201cprompted\u201d him to make the video, in which he said the remark \u201cscares people, it\u2019s called bullying from the highest law enforcement in Portage County.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romine said the local NAACP chapter called an emergency meeting for later this week to talk about how to address the community\u2019s concerns ahead of November.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a world it would be if we could all have our own opinions and still get along in that space,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know, what happened to that?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
An Ohio sheriff this weekend urged residents in his county to collect the addresses of homes sporting signs for Vice President Kamala Harris, arbitrarily suggesting that there would be an influx of undocumented immigrants if she wins the presidential race. Bruce Zuchowski, the sheriff of Portage County who is seeking reelection, made the incendiary remarks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}