On September 27, Jesús Iván Sepúlveda Martínez was traveling with a group of other migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. They stopped around the town of Sierra Blanca to drink from a reservoir. Michael Sheppard and his twin brother Mark pulled up in a pickup truck and began shooting. They killed Martinez and injured another woman.
Michael Sheppard was a warden at the local private prison (and accused of multiple abuses there) and his brother worked for the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheppards claimed that they were hunting and thought the migrants were prey. Other eyewitnesses say that the brothers were shouting racist comments and, when the migrants hid in the scrub, teased them. As per The New York Times:
[M]igrants told investigators that the two men had taunted them in Spanish as they were hiding. They said the men used profanity as they shouted at them to come out and opened fire when they emerged.
After the shooting, the two men apparently went to a meeting of the county water board. Per [Mark Sheppard's boss] Sheriff West:
“I saw them that same night at the water board, nothing out of the ordinary,” the sheriff said. “We were finishing the meeting when the call came in,” he added, speaking of the 911 call about the killing. “And I didn’t see their demeanor change.”
The twins were arrested, released on bond ($250,000), then re-arrested by the Texas Rangers, and are in the Hudspeth County Jail (where Mark Sheppard works and West is in charge).
When the New York Times asked the county sheriff about the two men, Arvin West said, “At this point, I don’t know what to think. They are good guys. They spend a lot of time outdoors. Mike loves to hunt…I’ve never gone hunting with them. I don’t hunt animals. I hunt man.” The final sentence was, despite the fact that social-criticism-satire The Most Dangerous Game was surely on his high school reading list, uttered without irony.
It’s impossible to separate this horrible shooting from the Republican rhetoric about immigrants and immigration policy. Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star is an example of cruel policy choices born of extremely open and public xenophobia that has birthed a union of sheriffs and militias along the U.S.-Mexico border. The links between sheriffs and anti-immigration groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) are well-established and reinforced by official policies like the 287(g) program, which allows local law enforcement to act as immigration officials and detain people suspected of violating immigration law – a civil matter for which overwhelmingly poor, brown people are magically made to suffer criminal penalties. (Over two dozen Texas counties participate in 287(g).)
Sheriff West himself has over a decade’s experience in anti-immigration and far-right sentiment. He has previously told his employees to carry a firearm whenever they travel, citing fears that Mexican cartels are targeting his department. He also, among other things, arrested Willie Nelson and deputized Steven Segal (in addition to taking Segal on a “border tour.”). “I’d like for the general public to pray for us,” West said in 2010.
According to internal documents I have uncovered, West is a member of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which held several “certified trainings” in Texas over the last year. (“The Texas Tour,” it was called.) Richard Mack, the founder of the CSPOA, has espoused anti-immigrant attitudes. West is also a member of Protect America Now, which was founded by Sheriff Mark Lamb, whose anti-immigration credentials are well-established.
The infiltration of the CSPOA and groups like FAIR and the Center for Immigration Studies into law enforcement is deeply threatening, especially when paired with official policies that permit unconstitutional restraints on immigrants as well as the cruelty of deceptively busing and flying immigrants across state borders. Most disappointingly, to me, has been the lack of response from Democrats. From what I can tell, the official response from the feds has been crickets. There’s still no one leading ICE – Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez withdrew from the process and Biden has not nominated a new candidate – one of the largest militarized forces controlled by the feds. Biden has apparently resumed building the “border wall.” And, why is there no pushback on Operation Lone Star? It’s well-established that many of the people involved on January 6 were motivated by the “great replacement theory,” which reflects deep anxiety that non-white people will somehow take over the United States. The El Paso shooting was motivated by anti-immigration animus. Vigilantes are targeting migrants. How much evidence does the Biden administration need to take this threat seriously?
We must finally be frank with one another. Republicans, when not employing undocumented migrants and stealing their wages, have “othered” migrants into the animal category. Democrats, correctly perceiving that sympathy towards undocumented migrants does nothing for them politically, stand mute at best—and, through federal funding priorities and inaction, enable at worst. It would be nice to hope that our better angels might take hold one day and that a humane immigration system might emerge because of our collective commitment to human rights, human dignity, and our treaty obligations. But as the recently unearthed Obama magnum opus from his youth reminds us, we cannot expect people to vote in large numbers against what they perceive as their most selfish personal interests. American immigration policy has been a racist heap dumpster fire since the beginning. Until the economic necessity of migration is exposed and explained to the American people, it will remain one.
And in New York
There are sheriffs in New York state who say they won’t follow a new state law restricting the carrying of firearms in public places. This was before a judge said the law was probably unconstitutional in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. Don’t worry. Those sheriffs are still putting people in jail for gun possession if those people happen to have a felony conviction. I wonder who those people are?
For more on this, check out the sign below created by the New York State Sheriffs’ Association, which includes additional language to “acknowledge the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”