If you’re a Californian who wants to fight back against the Trump administration, you might start with a campaign to remove your county sheriff.
In our state, the position of sheriff is the closest approximation to the lawless, authoritarian presidency Trump is fashioning. Because sheriffs, in matters of jail and policing, do whatever they want. No government post in America produces more corruption. The California scandals are too numerous to list here, though I find one unforgettable: the San Joaquin County sheriff who, in 2017, was accused of cutting the hands off corpses to impede investigations.
The real problem is not all the scandals — it’s the lack of tools to stop the scandals. The state constitution and state law provide no way to fire sheriffs engaged in wrongdoing. Local elected officials have little formal authority over sheriffs. And while sheriffs are elected, they often run unopposed, as few of us are brave enough to challenge officials who have unconstrained power to jail people.
Our unaccountable sheriffs are a headache for Californians in normal times. Now, with California under attack from our federal government, sheriffs have become an existential threat to our state’s democracy and rule of law.
The Trump administration, all too aware of sheriffs’ untrammeled power, has been recruiting them as allies in its extra-legal war against California, and especially our immigrant families. And, shamefully, many sheriffs have openly expressed their desires to serve MAGA madness even when it means violating state law.
Sheriffs’ defiance
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who recently launched a campaign for governor, may be Trump’s top elected ally in the state. His history is ugly. Leaked emails show that in 2014 he was a member of the hate group, the Oath Keepers, who were key players in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Since his election in 2018, his office has demonstrated incompetence — losing huge quantities of meth, mismanaging contracts to police local communities, raiding the home of an elderly couple falsely suspected of growing marijuana —and a lack of respect for civil rights. Deaths in Riverside jails have surged under his leadership, drawing a state investigation.
Now Bianco is defending Trump’s mass deportation campaign, and suggesting he will cooperate with that campaign when he can. What could go wrong?
Alas, Bianco is hardly the only sheriff embracing impunity. Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman recently said he would defy the state sanctuary law and work with ICE to remove any immigrant in his jails he deems “a serious threat.” In a statement, he dared state officials to take action against him, and claimed that the state sanctuary law was in violation of federal law. He’s wrong — the federal courts have upheld SB 54.
Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni hasn’t gone as far as Bianco or Redman yet, but he has also criticized the state sanctuary law. He disclosed recently that he has been speaking with a dozen other California sheriffs about their frustrations with not being able to help with Trump’s deportations.
Sheriff defiance is hardly limited to more conservative counties. In San Diego, Sheriff Kelly Martinez announced she would defy a new county ordinance advancing protections for immigrants. In the midst of the controversy, County Supervisor Nora Vargas abruptly resigned her office, just weeks after winning re-election, citing threats to her personal safety. (Martinez’s office maintains they have no record of Vargas reporting threats against her.)
Martinez, seeking to strike a balance, has pledged her commitment to the state’s sanctuary law, though immigration lawyers and media reports cast doubt on that.
Ray of hope
In the midst of all this dark defiance by sheriffs, there is a ray of hope and accountability in San Mateo County.
There, Sheriff Christina Corpus faces troubles that have nothing to do with state sanctuary laws, which she has said she supports. Corpus has been consumed by a massive scandal that includes allegations that she retaliated against staff, made racist and homophobic comments, and had a romantic relationship with a subordinate. The county hired a retired judge to conduct an investigation, which found that Corpus’s leadership was based on “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest and abuses of authority” and recommended a change in leadership.
Corpus, displaying typical sheriff behavior, defiantly rejected the report and refused to resign. But San Mateo County officials didn’t surrender. Instead, they drafted a historic ballot measure to grant the county supervisors the power to remove a sheriff. Over 80% of voters approved Measure A in a special election earlier this month.
This idea wasn’t new. In this century, county boards in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino have convinced voters to give them power to remove sheriffs, but haven’t removed any. If San Mateo supervisors use that new power to fire Corpus, as expected, they would be the first board to do so in state history.
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Voters in other counties would do well to adopt their own versions of Measure A, and county governments should not be afraid to use that power.
But there is an urgent need for more action. State Attorney General Rob Bonta should issue a legal opinion declaring that sheriffs and deputies who defy state law in immigration enforcement lose their “qualified immunity,” which protects government officials from being sued for their official conduct.
And if sheriffs participate in immigration enforcement that removes legal residents or U.S. citizens — which sometimes happens in immigration cases –hey should be subject to kidnapping charges.
Beyond bringing accountability to individual sheriffs, Californians also must change the systems that give them power. The best way would be a constitutional amendment that makes sheriffs appointed positions, just like police chiefs, and makes clear that these law enforcement leaders can be fired when they break the law.
Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.
