Conservative sounds alarm on under-the-radar Trump move to pay off cops to assist ICE

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Raw Story

February 9, 2026 9:51AM ET


During an appearance on MS NOW Monday, conservative commentator Matt Lewis raised the prospect of Donald Trump taking over local police departments by paying them off to help out in rounding up immigrants.

Using his Substack column from Sunday as a jumping-off point, Lewis claimed the American public is likely unaware of a program in place that allows local cops to take part in a “Task Force Model” offered by the federal government to supplement and assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“The federal government is reimbursing for the salaries and benefits (including perks like overtime and equipment) for these officers — a financial arrangement that raises the sort of eyebrow-arching questions usually reserved for lobbyists and free steak dinners," he wrote.

“The unspoken point here is that the person who pays you becomes your boss,” he insisted, while adding that there should be concerns about future elections. Speaking with the co-hosts of “Morning Joe,“ Lewis elaborated that the TFM program has existed for years, but it has exploded under Trump as his DHS agents invaded cities and forcefully started snatching people off the streets.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/ice-midterms/

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1. Buchanan County (VA.) Sheriff: the department netted $115,000 for vehicles and equipment, and more money for

the salaries of cops who worked the task force (the task force who helped with finding and apprehending people to deport). The sheriff "referred all questions to an ICE spokesperson (they never answered any of my questions)."
- Mother Jones March-April 2026, p. 24

The story features conditions in Grundy, in Buchanan County, a little town in southwestern Virginia right near where Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky all meet. For those who zoom in trying to find it, find the farthest east tip of Kentucky, and about 5 miles east of the border is Grundy.

Title of article:"He Thinks Our People Are Idiots." Trump betrayed the people of coal country. They love him anyway.

About how poor the people there are, on average, and how dependent on the programs that Trump is cutting. And how they rationalize it the way only goobers can.

DJT isn't even saving the coal jobs there -- the coal mined there is the type used for making steel, not for powering electric power generating plants. And DJT's tariff war with China (a 15% tariff on the coal) has meant China, which was the main customer for this coal, is not importing any. And DJT put the Biden silica rule on hold, which limited miners' exposure to silica dust, which causes the most severe forms of black lung disease.

Trump told Playboy magazine back in 1990:
"If I had been the son of a coal miner, I would have left the damn mines. But most people don't have the imagination -- or whatever -- to leave their mine. They don't have it." p. 22

In short, Hurley says, "He thinks our people are idiots".