Supporting Sheriff Tanner
I am writing to express my support and appreciation for Sheriff Tanner’s prompt action to re-join the ICE 287(g) partnership program. Anti-immigration enforcement activists are trying to spread a misleading narrative about the program, which were repeated in Lolita Huckaby’s recent column, insinuating that the program leads to racial profiling and abuse of authority.
On the contrary, the program boosts public safety here in Beaufort County by allowing our local officers to identify non-citizens who are committing crimes and endangering everyone, citizens and visitors alike.
The officers chosen for the program must be experienced, and they receive extensive training in immigration law, civil rights, and cross-cultural issues. They are monitored by several offices within the Department of Homeland Security. In the decades that the program has been in operation, there have been no proven incidents of racial profiling.
According to ICE data collected by UCLA, between January and June 2025, S.C. law enforcement agencies arrested 282 people under 287(g) authority. Of these, 132 aliens had been previously convicted of a crime, 146 had pending criminal charges, and only four were arrested solely on immigration violations. More than half have already been sent home.
Those who are here in defiance of our immigration laws should have to leave, and it’s an especially good use of our county resources to help make sure that this happens to those arrested for additional crimes.
The County [Council] should pass a resolution supporting Sheriff Tanner’s participation, and the state legislature should pass a bill to require all sheriffs to join. It’s the best way to address the local crime problems that result from inadequate border security.
— Jessica M. Vaughan, St. Helena Island
Texas deserved better
Republican activist Grover Norquist once joked that our government should be so small he could “drown it in a bathtub.” This was meant to be funny. However, today there are more than 200 grieving families in central Texas who would fail to see any humor in this comment.
These families lost loved ones in the horrific flooding of the Guadalupe River over the July 4th weekend. Many of those deaths might have been prevented had it not been for overzealous government downsizing and the gross incompetence of Trump’s cabinet.
The National Weather Service did its job on July 4th. They issued increasingly urgent flood warnings at 1:14 a.m., 4:03 a.m., and 6:06 a.m.. However, these warnings failed to reach local authorities in the affected areas. Why? Because the weather service employee in charge of this vital communication link was a casualty of the DOGE downsizing efforts. Thanks to Elon and his crack team of hackers and game-boys, this critical position was vacant.
To make matters worse, search and rescue efforts were delayed for more than 72 hours because Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delayed signing orders to deploy FEMA teams. Meanwhile, David Richardson, the head of FEMA, has gone completely missing in action.
This is the kind of government response we should expect when we elect a monumentally incompetent and corrupt person to the presidency.
BTW, why is Trump, an ajudicated rapist and admitted sexual predator, so deathly afraid of the content of the Epstein files? Even his most ardent supporters should be asking this question.
— Peter Birschbach, Port Royal
