An Ohio sheriff has made a chilling—and possibly illegal—request of his county’s 161,000 residents.
Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski asked his constituents on Facebook to note the addresses of homes that have yard signs supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz—that way undocumented immigrants can be directed there.
The sheriff referred to immigrants as being “illegal human locust” in a pair of posts to his personal and public pages that have since turned their comments off. Zuchowski is the top cop in Portage County, which is home to Kent State University just and is just east of the Akron-Cleveland corridor.
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“When people ask me… What’s gonna happen if the Flip-Flopping, Laughing Hyena Wins?” Zuchowski wrote, referring to Harris. “I say... write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!
He continued: “Sooo... when the Illegal human ‘Locust’ (which she supports!) Need places to live... We’ll already have the addresses of the their New families... who supported their arrival!”
The late-night post, shared at 11:42 p.m. Friday, included images from Fox News reports about a “migrant crime wave” and “Kamala’s open borders.”
Zuchowski, who regularly posts screenshots of Fox News broadcasts and traveled to the southern border last year, suggested he’d only support the bussing of migrants to Harris supporters’ homes if she wins in November.
Some residents appeared to heed Zuchowski’s call to note the addresses of Harris supporters almost immediately. At least one commenter shared the name and approximate address of a Harris backer and another commenter confirmed, “I’ll add that name to the list.”
Zuchowski’s post, which uses a head-scratching amount of ellipsis, has received significant blowback in Ohio, which has recently been the epicenter of anti-immigrant rhetoric amid the infamous pet-eating hoax.
Even a top Republican in Portage County said he was disgusted by Zuchowski’s dystopian suggestion. Tony Badalamenti, a commissioner, resigned from the county’s Republican Central Committee and claimed Zuchowski’s post was the last straw.
“This is not the leadership I want to be part of,” he said in a video shared on his Facebook.
Badalamenti said he was “saddened” to step down, but said he had to speak out against “bullying from the highest law enforcement [official] in Portage county.”
Residents who spoke to the county’s local paper, The Portager, said the sheriff’s request was “not normal” and “scary.” Others feared for their loved ones safety.
“My parents are elderly and have been very politically active Democrats,” a resident reportedly told the paper. “I am afraid for them now. I don’t want to scare them or suggest they take down their signs, but I am sick to my stomach with worry.”
Zuchowski, who was elected to his position in 2020, has not addressed the post’s backlash publicly and did not respond to questions sent by the Daily Beast.
The sheriff has posted once since his controversial request. In that post, from Saturday, he showed off his American flag button-up, a cowboy hat, and his boots as he thanked supporters who turned up to a fundraiser.
Collin Marozzi, the deputy policy director of ACLU in Ohio, told the NPR station Ideastream that Zuchowski’s pressuring of local Harris supporters was “flat out illegal.”
“It is against federal law to intimidate voters into not casting their vote of their choice, so this is very serious,” he said.
Jon Barber, a Democrat who’s opposing Zuchowski in November, has seized on the post to win favor with the conservative-majority county’s voters.
“People shouldn’t be out here and be afraid that when they call police, ‘Are they going to look up my voting record?” he said. “Are they going to look to see if I have a sign that's maybe supporting someone they don't like or a point of view about something they don’t like? And they drive by instead of helping.’”
