Sheriff caught short by lawsuit
The Bristol sheriff yesterday rushed to comply with a civil rights group’s public records request concerning his fledgling immigrationenforcement partnership with the feds, hours after a civil suit was filed charging his office with flouting the law.
“They are absolutely correct. We dropped the ball on this. It’s not something we’re happy about. My legal team has been working all day to make sure this is corrected,” Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson told the Herald after the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice filed suit against the Republican lawman in Suffolk Superior Court to force the records’ release.
The group’s initial request was made in January and, by law, Hodgson’s office had 10 days to respond. Hodgson apologized, saying his office has been inundated with public records requests. He said his legal staff expected to start handing over some records to the committee late yesterday.
The committee said in a statement it filed the civil action “to obtain public records regarding the Sheriff’s participation in a controversial U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that entangles local police in federal immigration enforcement. Sheriff Hodgson has refused to release any documents to the civil rights group in response to the January 2017 demand, in clear violation of the State’s public records law.”
“Never did we refuse to give this information,” Hodgson responded. “Did we fall short of the deadline? Of course we did and we’re doing everything we can to remedy that.”
In January, Hodgson and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald joined an ICE program that trains local law enforcement to interview inmates about their immigration status, search federal databases for a prisoner’s immigration history and initiate deportation proceedings to prevent illegal immigrants from being released before ICE agents can pick them up.
The committee says it requested documents to see how much Hodgson is spending on the program and how it is being carried out.