County sheriffs in at least two states have gone to court against their own governments over sanctuary immigration policies, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in an interview, framing the lawsuits as evidence that the pushback against those policies is coming from inside law enforcement itself.
Speaking on Breitbart News Daily, the House Judiciary Committee chairman said a sheriff from Maryland is suing the state of Maryland, and that a sheriff in New York has done the same. Jordan said he has questioned both officials directly about why they would take such an unusual step.
“I asked them the basic question. I go, ‘Why suing your state? That’s a big step. You’re a county sheriff. You’re suing your own darn state,'” Jordan recounted. “And they go, ‘Because it jeopardizes the safety of our people.'”
According to Jordan’s account, the sheriffs see themselves as the top law enforcement officers in their counties and believe the policies leave residents exposed. “They’re elected as the top law enforcement agent in their county, and they see how dumb, just dumb this is,” he said. “That’s why they’re doing it.”
Angel families and committee hearings
Jordan tied the litigation to testimony his committee has taken from what he called angel families — relatives of people killed by immigrants in the country illegally. He said those families have appeared before the Judiciary Committee repeatedly to describe cases in which someone facing criminal charges was released in a sanctuary jurisdiction and then allegedly committed a serious offense.
“We do know of all the angel families in sanctuary jurisdictions where some illegal migrant who has been charged with another crime is let out and then goes and does something terrible,” Jordan said. “We’ve had angel family after angel family come and testify in front of our committee.”
The Ohio Republican said the committee held hearings on the subject regularly while the House was in session, describing sanctuary policies in blunt terms as a “stupid policy” that he believes voters should hold accountable.
Jordan’s map of sanctuary jurisdictions
Jordan also offered a broad geographic breakdown of where sanctuary policies are in effect, arguing the footprint is larger than many people assume. He pointed to 18 large Democratic-run cities, 11 Democratic-run states, and three counties — including Fairfax County and Arlington County in Virginia, just outside Washington — plus the District of Columbia itself.
“That’s almost a third of the nation,” Jordan said, adding that a substantial share of the country’s population lives in those areas.
The congressman’s remarks echoed a long-running argument among critics of sanctuary policies: that jurisdictions limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement create gaps that can be exploited by people who go on to commit violent crimes. Supporters of those policies, including many local officials in the places Jordan named, argue that they improve public safety by encouraging residents to report crimes and cooperate with police without fear of deportation, and that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.
A midterm message
Jordan said Republicans should put the issue front and center as the midterm elections approach, using the sheriffs’ lawsuits as a concrete example of local law enforcement breaking with state leaders.
The Maryland sheriff’s case, as Jordan described it, rests on a straightforward claim: that the state’s policies undermine his ability to keep his county safe. “I was elected to protect the people in my county,” Jordan said, paraphrasing the sheriff’s position. “This jeopardizes their safety.”
He said two of the sheriffs have testified before his committee about their lawsuits, and that their testimony was meant to show how serious the conflict between county and state authorities has become.
It is not yet clear from Jordan’s remarks how far the lawsuits have progressed or what specific legal claims they raise; he did not name the individual sheriffs or the courts involved, and the cases were described only in general terms during the radio interview.
The Judiciary Committee under Jordan has made immigration enforcement one of its central lines of inquiry, taking testimony from victims’ families and pressing the argument that local non-cooperation policies are a public safety threat rather than a civil liberties protection.
Breitbart News Daily airs weekdays on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2026/09/29/exclusive-rep-jim-jordan-sheriffs-are-suing-their-own-states-over-sanctuary-policies-jeopardizing-safety/