(Bristol County Sheriff's Office)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson has been a strong supporter of President Trump's proposed border wall. But with Congress so far unwilling to fund the project, he and other sheriffs are crowd-funding the effort.
Hodgson told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker they've set up a website, sheriffswall.org, that will raise money through the National Sheriffs Association.
"A hundred percent goes to the funding of the wall, and it's tax deductible, and enough's enough," he said. "It's time for the American people to wise up and do what we have to do, and send a clear message to Congress."
This week, the Senate passed a short-term spending bill to keep the government running through early December, but the border wall wasn't addressed--putting that off until after the midterm elections.
"The sheriffs have been asking for 20 years for Congress to act on this, and they've just passed the funding bill--once again, 20 years later, still having done nothing," Hodgson said. "What it says to the American people is, look, our politics are more important than the lives of innocent people, the drug trafficking that's flowing into our communities with the opioid crisis, the transnational gangs that are taking over some of the schools and intimidating people in neighborhoods. Basically, I think, people are just fed up."
Hodgson said he doesn't know how much they'll raise through the site, but he hopes it will send a message to lawmakers.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker (@radiobenparker) reports