To the editor:

Three significant developments occurred during the pandemic period in Bristol County that are worthy of reiteration and public attention.

First and foremost, the Department of Homeland Security cancelled both contracts with Sheriff Thomas Hodgson regarding his detention and processing of undocumented immigrants.

Secondly, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey issued a sixty page report declaring that Sheriff Hodgson’s office violated the civil rights of a group of detained undocumented immigrants and urged a cancellation of all contracts between Hodgson and ICE.

Thirdly, a federal court judge declared that Sheriff Hodgson’s pandemic response as regarding the undocumented immigrants appeared to be violative of their constitutional rights and indifferent to their health risks.

When the state Attorney General, a federal court judge, and a federal agency are critical of the actions of Sheriff Hodgson  and these “indictments” are added to a long history of law suits pursued, or lost, at great cost to taxpayers, accounting irregularities reported by the state auditor and continuous health code violations listed in the Department of Public Health investigations, it is time for removal by the Supreme Judicial Court or the voters of Bristol County.

Betty Ussach,

Dartmouth