A group of prisoners that includes a jailed ex-Republican state senator in Arkansas has sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump offering “volunteer labour” to build the wall proposed for the border between America and Mexico.
Jon Woods is one of six names attached to a letter that was dated Nov. 8 and sent to the White House.
The letter, signed by six inmates, implores Trump to consider prisoner labour, as they represent a “willing and untapped work force.”
They noted that the Federal Bureau of Prisons “already implements mobile work cadres of prisoners who perform construction projects in the community throughout the state of Texas.”
Coverage of Donald Trump’s proposed border wall on Globalnews.ca:
“We are a diverse group of federal prisoners who appreciate the current White House positions and recognize the positive things that they have brought America,” they wrote.
“We have come together because we understand the benefit that a border wall will bring the country.”
READ MORE: Donald Trump floats using military budget to pay for border wall
The letter carries the names of the prisoners as well as their ethnicities. One writer identified as African American, another as Mexican American, while two others said they came from the Navajo and Cheyenne Nations.
Woods was identified as a “European American.”
The prisoners went on to say that the logistics of using them as labour for the border wall would be “minimal.”
They said “mobile housing or FEMA trailers” would serve as “adequate living conditions.”
Woods is a former state senator who was sentenced to over 18 years in prison earlier this year because of his role leading a bribery operation that saw taxpayer money diverted to Ecclesia College, a state institution, in order to obtain kickbacks, 5News reported.
He was convicted on 15 of 17 charges relating to offences such as money laundering, wire fraud and mail fraud; one consultant was found guilty alongside him and two other people pleaded guilty before the trial started.
Before he went to prison, however, Woods was a staunch Trump supporter who jumped behind the president even as other politicians in Arkansas didn’t, State Rep. Janna Della Rosa told 5News.
Signatories to the letter also included Andrew Spengler, a white ex-Milwaukee police officer who in 2007 was convicted of beating a biracial man at a housewarming party three years prior, CBS News reported.
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