The Dictatorship
Pam Bondi’s cynical ploy to force sheriffs to do ICE’s dirty work
This week, sheriffs across the country said that they will not do the legally dubious work of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, even as newly sworn-in Attorney General Pam Bondi threatens prosecutions and funding cuts.
Sheriffs in Iowa, New York and North Carolina were among those who said they would not prioritize mass deportations.
Sheriffs in IowaNew York and North Carolina were among those who said they would not prioritize mass deportations, even after Bondi threatened to cut off federal funds to sanctuary jurisdictionsand acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove took the extraordinary step of calling for an investigation — and possible prosecution — of Tompkins County, New York, Sheriff Derek R. Osborne. At issue there is the court-ordered release of an undocumented immigrant from Sheriff Osborne’s jail. Sheriff Osborne and other Tompkins County officials have affirmed that the sheriff’s office followed all applicable laws, but Bove is attempting to use this case to send a warning to other jurisdictions that limit collaboration with immigration authorities.“We will use every tool at our disposal to prevent sanctuary city policies from impeding and obstructing lawful federal operations,” he said. But the Trump administration has a problem: Local jurisdictions have the legal discretion to make their own decisions on immigration enforcement, and sanctuary policies — which limit collaboration, rather than instructing or impeding federal authorities — are perfectly legal. That’s why the Trump administration is hoping that fear and misinformation, and using threats that violate the Constitution, will cow local leaders into collaboration.
Attacking sanctuary policies like the one in Tompkins County is not only cynical, it’s bad policy. The evidence is clear that, when sheriffs do the job of federal law enforcement, everybody is less safe. People become afraid and less likely to report crimes. Trust decreases in government overall. Immigrants are less likely to send their kids to school.That’s on top of the financial and personnel costs. Law enforcement agencies are having a hard time hiring. Terry Norris, the executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs Associationtold NPR, “Georgia sheriffs are like almost every other agency throughout the country. We have a very difficult time hiring deputies and jailers.”
Sheriffs’ jails are often overcrowded, with people dying every day across the country. They can ill afford to focus officers on a federal edict that won’t make their communities safer. Doing the administration’s job diverts local resources that could be used for substance use treatment and mental health support. Finally, immigration enforcement is complicated and increases the risk of wrongful detention, exposing sheriffs to liability and potential litigation.
For these reasons, sheriffs from Iowa to California have affirmed their unwillingness to aid the Trump administration’s efforts, or have pulled back on existing collaboration with immigration authorities. Sheriffs have recommitted their concern for the safety of all residents in their counties, terminated voluntary information sharing and affirmed their commitment to doing only what the law demands on immigration. “Our sole oath and allegiance are to the Constitution and the protection of an individual’s rights,” Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx wrote in a Facebook post in which he vowed not to honor detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But the Trump administration has decided that it knows better than local law enforcement. The administration needs local law enforcement to reach its deportation goals. During the first Trump administration, 47% of deportations from within the United States went through jails. “To the sheriffs in the room, we need your bed space. We need your 287(g) agreements,” Trump “border czar” Tom Homan told attendees of the National Sheriff Association meeting on Saturday, referring to a program that can grant some immigration enforcement powers to officers in participating local law enforcement agencies. “We need that force-multiplier,” he said.
The Trump administration has decided that it knows better than local law enforcement.
Already, jails in the United States are in a state of crisis. More than 1,000 people die each yearmost before they have faced trial. During the Biden administration, ICE took steps, albeit too limited, to make sure people in its custody were safe. In 2021, they revoked a contract with the Bristol, Massachusetts sheriff who was accused of assaulting incarcerated people during a disturbance in the jail. The closure followed a report from the state attorney general that found a “callous disregard for the well-being of immigration detainees” in the facility, citing, among other things, the use of pepper spray, flash bang grenades and dogs.The Trump administration wants to reverse that progress and go further. Homan told the sheriffs on Saturday that he would place people back in jails like Bristol, relaxing conditions under which someone can be held in ICE’s custody. These promises are part of a two-prong strategy: make it easy for sheriffs eager to participate in mass deportations and make other sheriffs believe they have no choice but to collaborate.
In some places, state laws prohibit voluntary cooperation with federal immigration authorities. In other states, the law requires this activity. However, it is clear everywhere that federal law does not require that sheriffs or other local officials participate. These sheriffs do not violate federal law because they are not interfering with immigration enforcement. Under the 10th Amendment’s long-standing “anti-commandeering doctrine,” state and local governments cannot be required to enforce federal immigration law.
Sheriffs and lawmakers who institute these policies are simply making a decision to prioritize other responsibilities — like focusing on the safety of their communities — rather than volunteering deputies to execute immigration authorities’ mandate. They don’t have to do what the Trump administration tells them to do. Despite this, Bove turned to the threat of prosecutions. Because they don’t have the force of law on their side, they hope to rely on the force of fear.In Tompkins County, New York, the sheriff’s office has been very clear that it has acted “consistently with New York State law and judicial decisionsCounty policy, guidance of the New York Attorney General’s Office, and guidance of the New York State Sheriffs’ Association.” In fact, officials there have argued that rather than any refusal to collaborate, this case was a matter of immigration authorities failing to act in a timely manner. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) knew exactly when the individual in question was going to be released and had every opportunity to come to the Tompkins County jail to obtain the individual in question without any need for a pursuit or other incident,” they said in a statement.
The facts on the ground seem to matter little to a DOJ that is more interested in political theater. Their plans for mass deportation will succeed or fail based on whether they can intimidate local law enforcement leaders like Derek Osborne into carrying out their dirty work for them. It’s up to all of us, attorneys and sheriffs and the public, to call them on their empty threats.
Sirine shebaya
Sirine Shebaya is the executive director of the National Immigration Project. She is an immigrant rights litigator and advocate who focuses on the intersection of immigration, civil rights, and racial justice. Under her leadership, the National Immigration Project combines movement-centered litigation, policy advocacy, narrative change, and training and education strategies to defend and advance the rights of immigrant communities of color. Sirine has led successful campaigns and lawsuits to disentangle local law enforcement from immigration enforcement, to expand protective policies at the federal level, and to challenge federal, state and local laws that harm immigrants.
Max Rose
Max Rose is the executive director of Sheriff Accountability Action, which works alongside grassroots organizers across the country to end mass incarceration and stop deportations while building progressive political power. Max lives in Durham, N.C. and is on the board of directors at DataWorks NC. His writing, in the American Prospect, Washington Monthly, and academic publications, has focused on racism, place and justice.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans still think their taxes are too high, according to recent polls, even after last year’s tax law fulfilled several of President Donald Trump’s tax-related campaign promises.
In fact, a new Fox News poll indicates people are more upset about taxes than they were last year. The findings from the survey, which was conducted in late March, are another sign that Americans are on edge about their personal finances as the U.S. experiences a spike in inflation and sluggish economic growth. Other polling finds that frustration goes beyond personal tax obligations, with many believing that wealthy people and corporations are not paying their fair share, while others worry about government waste.
The surveys come after Trump and Republicans passed a massive tax and spending cut bill last year. The legislation enacted a range of tax breaks, including a boosted child tax credit and new tax deductions for tips and overtime. Tax refunds are up this seasonand many households are expected to see more income from the Republicans’ tax legislation, but the Congressional Budget Office estimated it will ultimately give the largest benefits to the richest Americans.
Republicans have touted the law as evidence that they are making life more affordable for working families. But polling shows that many Americans may not be feeling the benefits, especially as their tax refunds get eaten up by higher prices.
Most say taxes are too high
About 7 in 10 registered voters say the taxes they pay are “too high,” according to the Fox News poll. That’s up from about 6 in 10 last year. The poll shows heightened concern among very liberal voters and Democratic men, but there has also been a sizable increase among groups that Republicans want to court ahead of the midterm elections, such as moderates, rural voters and white voters without a college degree.
Discontent about taxes has been rising for the past few years. Recent polling from Gallupconducted in March, found about 6 in 10 U.S. adults say the amount of federal income tax they have to pay is “too high,” a finding that’s been largely consistent in the annual poll since 2023. That’s approaching the level of unhappiness found in Gallup’s polling from the 1980s through the 1990s, before President George W. Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.
Now, about half of Democrats and about 6 in 10 Republicans say their federal income taxes are too high. Republicans tend to view their tax bill more negatively than Democrats, but Gallup’s polling shows that this gap often shrinks when a Republican is president.
Many believe the rich aren’t paying enough in taxes
Most Americans are troubled by the belief that some wealthy people and corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in January. About 6 in 10 Americans said each of those notions bothers them “a lot,” a measure that is largely unchanged in recent years.
By contrast, only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults in that poll said the amount they personally pay in taxes bothers them a lot.
About 8 in 10 Democrats are bothered “a lot” by the feeling that some corporations and rich people aren’t paying their fair share, the Pew survey found, compared to about 4 in 10 Republicans. Government spending is a bigger issue for Republicans, according to the Fox News poll, which found that 75% of registered voters — and a similar share of Republican voters — say “almost all” or “a great deal” of government funding is wasteful and inefficient.
That points to a perception problem for many Americans. Even if their own tax bill is manageable, the idea that the wealthy are underpaying — or that the government is wasting their dollars — bothers many. About half of Americans, 49%, in the Gallup poll say the income tax they will pay this year is “not fair,” which is in line with the record high from 2023.
Broad unhappiness with Trump’s tax approach
Americans’ tax frustration was rising before Trump re-entered the White House, but it’s still a problem for the president’s party — especially if Americans are not feeling the relief that he promised.
The Fox News poll found that about 6 in 10 registered voters, 64%, say they disapprove of how Trump is handling taxes, up from 53% last April. Disapproval has risen most sharply among independents, but also among Democrats and Republicans.
This aligns with a broader feeling that Trump isn’t doing enough to address inflation. Most Americans said Trump had hurt the cost of living “a lot” or “a little” in his second term, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in January. Roughly 9 in 10 Democrats and about 6 in 10 independents said Trump has had a negative impact on the cost of living.
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This story has been updated to correct that less than half of Republicans, 43%, said Trump has helped the cost of living, while 33% said he hasn’t made a difference and only 23% said he has hurt it.
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The Fox News poll was conducted among 1,001 registered voters from March 20-23. The Gallup poll was conducted among 1,000 U.S. adults from March 2-18. The Pew Research Center poll was conducted among 8,512 U.S. adults from Jan. 20-26. The AP-NORC Poll was conducted among 1,203 U.S. adults from Jan 8-11.
The Dictatorship
Democrats to confront Trump budget director Russ Vought about his ‘stone cold silence’
When White House budget director Russell Vought appears before lawmakers on Wednesday, he will almost certainly face questions about a ballooning Pentagon budgeta special war-funding request and an extended Homeland Security shutdown. But Democrats also plan to press him on an issue closer to the Capitol: why he has spent months dodging their questions altogether.
Vought is set to testify Wednesday before the House Budget Committee and again before the Senate’s budget panel on Thursday. It’s a long-awaited chance for Democrats eager to question him on several fronts — including the cost of the Iran war, cuts to health care spending, a demoralized federal workforce and what the government’s own watchdog has described as the illegal impoundment of federal funds.
Lawmakers also have a growing to-do list that involves Vought, including a war supplemental for President Donald Trump’s military campaign in Iran and a reconciliation bill that would fund immigration enforcement agencies. Congress is also supposed to adopt a budget, though that may slip after the president’s budget was weeks late and omitted any information about projected federal debts and deficits.
But Democrats see Vought as “missing and reclusive,” ignoring their questions for months, the Budget Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, told MS NOW. Vought didn’t testify before the committee last year, a break with tradition. And written questions to Vought have been met with “stone cold silence,” Boyle said.
In JanuaryHouse Democrats pressed Vought for answers on the administration’s health care plans, its compliance with congressionally approved funding laws, its attempt to withhold nutrition aid during last year’s government shutdown, and plans for federal layoffs.
“He sent us not one word in response,” Boyle said. “And in doing so, it shows their contempt for the United States Congress, and it shows their contempt for our constitutional system.”
Boyle told MS NOW he plans to introduce legislation to legally require Office of Management and Budget directors to testify before the House Budget Committee, after Vought didn’t do so last year. He also said he aims to require that the OMB director respond to members of the committee.
Democrats didn’t hear back from Vought about testifying to the committee until March, when Boyle displayed a picture of Vought as a missing child on a milk carton. That prompted Vought to respond on X that, “I am coming to testify on April 15. You should get up to speed.”
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, had previously assured reporters that Vought would testify in 2026, but Boyle said Democrats hadn’t gotten confirmation until the milk carton incident.
“That’s what shamed him into it,” Boyle said of Vought.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the Budget Committee, also said Vought had not been responsive to questions from Democratic members of the Senate, including on the cost of the Iran war. She said she’d press Vought at Thursday’s hearing on whether he would distribute funds appropriated by Congress.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he’d ask Vought questions “around this ‘traumatizing the federal workforce’ stuff,” and whether DOGE wasted money by firing employees who needed to be rehired later. And Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said he’d ask Vought “how he’s not a corrupt stooge of the fossil fuel industry.”
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, say they haven’t been pressing Vought hard for answers. For example, the missing debt and deficit data in the budget proposal — which Maya MacGuineas, president of the fiscally conservative Committee for a Responsible Budget called “an astonishing lack of information — hasn’t prompted pushback from conservative lawmakers.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he was unbothered by Vought’s decision to leave out the debt data in the president’s budget request.
“Nobody looks at it anyway,” Scott told MS NOW. “It’s just for you guys to write something.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said he’d ask Vought “to give a great update on the progress that we’ve made” in reducing the deficit. When asked about the missing debt and deficit information, Moreno said he didn’t know about it.
“I haven’t had a chance to see the whole thing, to be honest with you, so I’ve got to see what that’s all about,” Moreno told MS NOW.
In prepared remarks obtained by PunchbowlVought reportedly plans to say that, “when President Trump took office, the nation was facing financial catastrophe under the failed leadership of the Biden Administration and decades of status quo spending strangling our nation.”
But federal spending, according to the Treasury Departmenthas increased under Trump. And the federal deficit is going up. (The federal deficit was $1.8 trillion in fiscal 2025 and is projected to be $1.9 trillion in fiscal 2026according to the Congressional Budget Office.)
Republicans have also been patient with the lack of information about the cost of the Iran war.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday he still hasn’t seen a request and doesn’t know how much it will cost.
“The only thing I think I’ve seen is what you guys report,” Thune told reporters.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told reporters he’d want to scour the funding request’s details before he decides if he’ll support it.
But when pressed whether the administration had answered his questions on the topic, Johnson made it clear he hadn’t focused on those details yet.
“Haven’t really asked,” he said.
Jack Fitzpatrick covers Congress for MS NOW. He previously reported for Bloomberg Government, Morning Consult and National Journal. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University.
The Dictatorship
Justice Department moves to erase Jan. 6 convictions of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys’ leaders
The Justice Department requested on Tuesday for a federal appeals court to erase the seditious conspiracy convictions of a group of leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys — two right-wing extremist groups who were involved in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The request asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the individuals’ convictions, effectively erasing their guilty verdicts, and to dismiss the charges with prejudice. A dismissal with prejudice prevents the government from bringing the cases again.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump had already either pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of most of the roughly 1,500 people charged in connection with the 2021 attack on the Capitol after Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in 2020. While most of the defendants received pardons, wiping their convictions, Trump only commuted the sentences of 14 high-profile defendants to time served, which upheld their convictions while allowing them to leave prison.
The request by the Justice Department would go a step further and erase all the convictions for the extremist group leaders, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodeswho didn’t receive pardons last January.
Only 12 of those defendants were referenced in the Justice Department’s request on Tuesday. Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 yearsin prison, is among those who would benefit.
“The government’s motion to vacate in this case is consistent with its practice of moving the Supreme Court to vacate convictions in cases where the government has decided in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of a criminal case is in the interests of justice — motions that the Supreme Court routinely grants,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
Trump himself faces criminal a series of civil lawsuits related to his incitement of the Jan. 6 attack. A federal judge earlier this month rejected his efforts to end the suits ahead of his trial, which has not yet been scheduled.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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