Anti-Immigrant Group FAIR Taps Controversial Former Sheriff to Serve in Adviser Role

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), based in Washington, D.C., announced via an Oct. 24 press release that it is bringing on former Sheriff Mark Lamb as “Law Enforcement Advisor” to spearhead its law enforcement outreach efforts, “engaging officers and agencies across the nation on immigration issues.”

This latest move tracks with FAIR’s effort to court local sheriffs to carry out its larger anti-immigrant agenda, which includes deputizing local law enforcement to serve as an extension of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) deportation machine.

Lamb served as sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, from 2017 until Dec. 31, 2024. He did not run for sheriff in 2024 and instead unsuccessfully ran in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. Lamb is a notable figure in the antigovernment extremist movement and previously ran Protect America Now, a now-defunct antigovernment group that was a coalition of sheriffs devoted to pushing back on what they deemed was “an overreaching government.”

Lamb accepted the role while still serving as sheriff of Pinal County. It’s unclear if there was any connection between the adviser role and Lamb’s official title and responsibilities as sheriff. He did not return a request for comment from Hatewatch.

Lamb traffics in “constitutional sheriff” ideology, the extremist belief that sheriffs are the ultimate authority of the land and can refuse to enforce federal laws they deem to be unconstitutional. This idea is rooted in the concept of “posse comitatus,” or “the power of the county,” which was pioneered by white supremacist Christian Identity minister William Potter Gale in the 1970s.

Lamb may not call himself a constitutional sheriff, per an interview with Politico, but those in extremist law enforcement circles have claimed him as their own. A 2017 newsletter from the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), the extremist constitutional sheriff group started by Richard Mack, refers to Lamb as a CSPOA “member and Constitutional Sheriff.” Lamb has shown he is comfortable in constitutional sheriff circles and moving its ideology forward.

Lamb spoke at CSPOA’s 2020 Virginia conference and has been affiliated with CSPOA-tied campaigns along with Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes. Hatewatch previously reported on emails showing Mack sent Lamb an alleged sexual abuse video in 2021 to see if Lamb could launch an investigation into his son’s wife, who had accused the younger Mack of child abuse.

Author and journalist Jessica Pishko, who specializes in studying constitutional sheriffs, says sheriffs “serve as avatars of the far right.” In a 2024 interview with Salon, Pishko discussed how Lamb has been a key figure in mainstreaming constitutional sheriff ideology. She noted that once elected as sheriff, Lamb “realized that he could align himself with the MAGA movement, and began to pursue his real goal, which was a career in reality television. He adopted a new persona: He stopped wearing a uniform, he started wearing a big belt buckle and button-down shirts and a flak vest.” Lamb has appeared in various law enforcement-related reality television programs. He made guest appearances on A&E’s Live PD and starred in a season of 60 Days In, a show where volunteers spend 60 days undercover in a prison.

The former Pinal County sheriff, who has a history of engaging in conspiracy theories and associating with those espousing them, helped stoke distrust in U.S. elections. Media Matters for America has reported that Lamb has also appeared on online shows affiliated with hosts known for pushing QAnon-style conspiracy theories.

On his Senate campaign page, he bragged about pushing back against government COVID-19 protocols. “In 2020, Sheriff Lamb took a courageous stand against COVID lockdowns, as well as mask and vaccine mandates, ensuring that his people lived free, businesses remained open, and children stayed in school,” his campaign page reads.

Lamb has collaborated with FAIR in the past. In 2019 and 2022, he participated in the group’s “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” radio and networking event in Washington, D.C. The event brings together anti-immigrant figures, conservative radio show hosts and lawmakers sympathetic to FAIR’s policies. A handful of hardline sheriffs and other law enforcement officials also participate. He also spoke at a 2021 rally in the Southwest calling to “End Biden’s Border Crisis.”

FAIR and Lamb appear to share the same ideology. FAIR often claims the U.S. is facing a migrant “invasion” at the southern border. Dehumanizing and dangerous claims of the country being invaded by mostly nonwhite migrants bear similarities to the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory. Such rhetoric has been deployed by white nationalists, neo-Nazis and anti-immigrant figures. FAIR’s late founder, John Tanton, a white nationalist and eugenicist, wrote of an “immigration invasion” in a book published in 1994.

In a post on his official X account on May 10, 2023, Lamb tweeted, “We need to stop the Invasion.”

“This absolutely is an invasion,” he added in an accompanying video. “And we must stop this invasion or we’re going to have big problems.”

Lamb fits into FAIR’s broader strategy of courting law enforcement and emboldening them to be an extension of its movement. Ethan Fauré, a senior research analyst at social justice research group Political Research Associates (PRA), discussed this during an appearance on an Oct. 24, 2024, PRA-produced podcast, “What is FAIR?”

“Beginning in 2012, FAIR noted that there is a strategic way to bring sheriffs and local law enforcement into the ongoing efforts” of “develop[ing] state and local strategies to advance their anti-immigrant agenda,” Fauré said.

Fauré added that this strategy is part of a larger mantra of anti-immigrant groups that “every state is a border state.” Fauré continued, “The scale and frequency with which the organizing anti-immigrant movement has interacted with sheriffs over the last decade is pretty alarming, but also recognizing that there is strategic value in it for the movement, and that’s why they continue these efforts.”

Fauré elaborated on Lamb’s role at FAIR in an email to Hatewatch.

“FAIR hiring Lamb is expected, given their history of collaboration and Lamb’s recent failed bid for higher political office,” Fauré said. “For years, Lamb has leveraged his law enforcement background to various right-wing media and well-resourced groups like FAIR to advance anti-immigrant narratives and increase his personal visibility. Working directly for the leading anti-immigrant group allows Lamb to continue pursuing those goals while lending additional false credibility to FAIR’s ongoing organizing of law enforcement. The anti-immigrant movement recognizes sheriffs play a key role in the deportation machine’s expansion and encourages sheriffs to look beyond their jurisdictions towards national issues outside of their legal purview. Lamb will now assist that effort, free from any perfunctory obligations to the people of Pinal County.”

Pinal County has agreed to participate in ICE’s 287(g) program, which permits local law enforcement to serve as de facto immigration agents. One of FAIR’s goals is to persuade sheriffs across the country to enter into 287(g) agreements to carry out its anti-immigrant agenda.

Tanton laid out his vision for curbing immigration in a 1993 memo, saying, “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.” Tanton established FAIR and a network of other immigration-focused groups to carry on his legacy.

During the previous Trump administration, 287(g) agreements grew from just 35 to 140 and proved to have staying power, as 137 were still in place in 2024. The growth in local law enforcement action on immigration enforcement and detention has proven to have long-lasting impact.

As part of its agenda, FAIR also opposes so-called “sanctuary” cities — jurisdictions that, in varying ways, refuse to use local resources or officials to support federal immigration enforcement, which is legal and within their rights.

Speaking on FAIR’s podcast on Oct. 24, Lamb stated, “Look, you can’t have sanctuary cities.” He later noted, however, that “I’m a 10th Amendment guy. I believe that the power is to the states, you know, that we’ve seen the federal government become far too powerful,” and that states like Texas and Arizona should “have the right to protect our borders.”

Lamb appears to snub measures he deems unjust except when it comes to removing immigrants, many of whom come from Central and South America, from the country. He also defended Arizona’s anti-immigrant legislation, SB 1070, which was widely criticized for promoting racial profiling, saying, “I still think they should have challenged it [being struck down] 10 years ago.”

FAIR did not respond to a request for comment from Hatewatch.

Lamb joins another hardliner law enforcement official — Tom Hodgson, the former sheriff of Bristol County, Massachusetts — as being officially tied to the anti-immigrant group. Hodgson joined FAIR’s national board of advisers in 2017.

FAIR’s Julie Kirchner was a contributor to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 efforts to guide the policies and appointees of a new Trump administration. Lamb joined FAIR ahead of the incoming Trump administration, which has threatened mass deportations and other draconian immigration policies.

Picture at top: In August 2024, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb speaks during a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Glendale, Arizona. (Credit: Getty Images)