Fresh off of her visit to Washington, D.C. this month, Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly spoke about the trip where she and 43 other sheriffs from around the country discussed immigration-related policies.
The sheriff also made certain to note that the trip was funded by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, (FAIR), which is described on its social media page as a nonprofit tax-exempt organization in the United States, seeking to reduce both legal and illegal immigration.
The group also publishes position papers, organizes events, and runs campaigns in order to influence U.S. immigration policies.
“We discussed illegal immigration and other immigration-related policies as well as border security,” Wehrly said. “There were also several of us who wanted to discuss the opioid crisis, and we did manage to do that. The main topic, however, was criminal, illegal aliens, and their impact locally, and the impact on national security.”
Wehrly also said she and the other visiting sheriffs participated in roundtable discussions with members of Congress and the members of the president’s administration.
“We also met with the president of the United States,” she said. “We interacted and had conversations with Vice President Mike Pence. After we finished the roundtable, the very next day we had appointments to go around and talk to senators and representatives. Although we got some very good feedback from them, all but the two of them were very interested in the topic. I very much liked meeting the president. We had some very good conversations.”
During those conversations, Wehrly said she personally had a message that she wanted to get across to lawmakers.
“There’s a difference between illegal immigrants and illegal criminal immigrants,” she said. “I’m mainly interested in illegal criminal immigrants. It impacts Nye County in the fact that we end up paying money out to people who are not part of our tax base. That was one of the things that all of the sheriffs felt, which was that we needed help from the federal government, in the form of funding.
“When you talk about illegal criminal immigrants, you are talking about the people who are bringing drugs into this country, which impacts every one of our counties here in Nevada. Not only is the illegal alien themselves taking services that really belong to people who live and work here, they’re infecting other people with the drugs, then we have collateral damage.”
Out of the 44 sheriffs who visited the nation’s capital, Wehrly said she was just one of three female sheriffs in the group.
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com, on Twitter: @pvtimes