Sheriff’s Office wants all Dodge County residents to be safe

I’ve had some in-depth discussions lately with family and friends about immigration and ICE. Rosie and I have a pretty diverse family — we have cousins who are African American, Mexican, Chinese, and Japanese — then we have our Canadian, South American, and Australian relatives. We also have an amazing daughter-in-law who is Guatemalan. My Mom’s side came from Norway. Dad’s side came from Scotland. Rosie’s mom’s side was German/Norwegian (scary mix…right?) and her father was Australian.
We also have some diversity in our law enforcement family at DCSO too with staff and/or spouses that are of proud Mexican, African American, and Indian heritage.
My point is you can embrace diversity and still believe in proper, legal immigration. We have a lot of work to do to fix the immigration process for good people who want a better life in this country.
However, even though our immigration process is broken at best, the answer is not to have open borders. We’ve felt the effects of that here in southeast Minnesota.
We are dealing with larger amounts of Meth and Fentanyl than ever before, all coming from across the border. The cases our drug task force have been working on are pounds and pounds of drugs coming up. Along with more narcotics comes more weapons and violent crime, including one victim whose neck was cut from ear to ear and tossed over a bridge to die (Thank God he survived!).
A narcotics related dispute and yes, that was here in Dodge County.
Criminals coming across the border not only make our communities much more dangerous, but they can also make life here much harder for the hard-working Hispanic population that calls our area home, families that are as much the victims of illegal immigration as anyone else.
We want our Hispanic population to know we want you to be safe and feel welcome here in Dodge County. We also want you to be comfortable reporting crimes to our staff — we have Spanish speaking deputies who can help when needed too.
We aren’t ICE, and honestly could care less about your immigration status — unless you are a criminal. I’m not talking about the crime of crossing the border illegally, I’m talking about crimes of violence and/or narcotics.
If ICE comes to our county looking for criminals who have come across the border illegally and request our assistance, we will help go after these criminals just like we would any other criminal in our communities.
There are so many layers to the onion when it comes to immigration, and it will take time to fix the process. For the men and women serving here Dodge County, our focus is to keep your community and your family safe. Everyone in Dodge County, regardless of where you came from or how long you’ve been here, deserves a safe community to raise their kids in.
We wish you and your family a safe and Happy New Year and look forward to serving you in 2025.
Your Sheriff,
Scott