Texas sheriff under investigation for routinely seizing cash from undocumented immigrants

[TexasTowelie]

by Jolie McCullough, Texas Tribune


A rural sheriff near the Texas border is under criminal investigation for allegedly having his deputies illegally seize money and a truck from undocumented immigrants during traffic stops.

Last month, investigators with the Texas Rangers and the Texas Attorney General’s Office raided four Real County Sheriff’s Office locations as part of an investigation into Sheriff Nathan Johnson, according to search warrants obtained this week by The Texas Tribune. The investigating Texas Ranger said Johnson admitted to regularly seizing money from undocumented immigrants during traffic stops, even if they were not accused of any state crime, before handing them over to United States Border Patrol agents.

One sheriff's deputy told investigators that “seizing currency from undocumented immigrants and the driver has been standard operation procedure for as long as he has been employed by the Real County Sheriff’s Office,” Texas Ranger Ricardo Guajardo wrote in the warrant requests.

Guajardo accused Johnson of felony-level theft by a public servant and abuse of official capacity, alleging the sheriff’s cash and vehicle seizures were in violation of the state’s relatively lenient civil asset forfeiture laws.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/10/real-county-sheriff-investigation/

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Shocking, I know.

Like there isn't money to be made on illegal immigrants.

[LeftInTX]

2. He's a Republican BTW

[Paladin]

3. That photo makes him look like one of the January 6 insurrectionists.

It would be nice if he just resigned, but there's obviously too much money at stake from robbing desperate immigrants. Miserable piece of shit.