By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A January 6 defendant running for U.S. Senate in Florida has told Newsweek that he supports deputizing the Proud Boys and other participants in the Capitol riot to carry out immigration enforcement.
"I would deputize the Proud Boys and the January 6 Patriots to bounty hunt illegal immigrants," Jake Lang told Newsweek in an interview.
The Proud Boys are a far-right, male-only organization known for promoting extremist nationalist views and engaging in political violence. They gained national attention for their involvement in the U.S. Capitol attack, and several members have faced criminal convictions for their actions.
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On January 6, 2021, a mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. Critics have widely described the event as an unprecedented assault on American democracy.
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The attack resulted in multiple deaths, injuries to law enforcement officers, and significant damage to the building. Hundreds of participants have been charged with crimes ranging from trespassing to assault and seditious conspiracy. Following his return to the White House in 2025, Trump issued pardons for many of those involved, including Lang.
Lang stormed the U.S. Capitol, carrying a baseball bat and riot shield, which prosecutors say he used against officers. He later posted on social media, calling the events a “war” and referring to himself as “the leader of Liberty.” Lang was arrested that month on multiple charges, including assault and obstruction, and spent nearly four years in custody.
Since his release, Lang has launched a campaign running in Florida’s GOP Senate primary against incumbent Ashley Moody, presenting a hardline approach to immigration and framing his campaign as a test of Republican loyalty to Trump.
Lang's Proposals for Illegal Immigration
Lang’s proposal would involve formally empowering, through some form of deputization, members of the Proud Boys and January 6 participants to locate and detain migrants without legal status.
"We would offer a bounty and work with local sheriffs and deputize and give legal access to be able to have these people join en masse and be able to work alongside federal law enforcement to provide tips, to provide information, and to go out and make the arrests of these illegal immigrants."
Lang, who says he is in his early 30s and originally from New York, rose to national attention because of his role in the January 6 riot. He spent several years in federal custody after being charged for his actions at the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot; he has denied wrongdoing and was set free in January 2025.
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Legal experts told Newsweek that the deputization of civilians is tightly constrained in U.S. law. While private policing and bounty hunting were part of early U.S. law enforcement, such practices are now largely obsolete.
Federal deputation programs generally involve formally trained state or local law enforcement officers operating under agreements such as Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, or authorized federal deputies, not private militias. Special deputations to private citizens are rare, highly regulated, and limited to narrow circumstances.
Experts said that without clear legislative authorization and oversight, it is highly unlikely that private groups could lawfully carry out policing activities, and the risk is even greater when the groups involved, such as the Proud Boys, have a documented history of disregarding the law.
Closer to a 'Police State'
"Jake Lang’s plan as U.S. Senator from Florida to deputize violent, white racist vigilantes to enforce immigration laws is insane and would bring the country much closer to a police state," Law Professor Bennett Gershman told Newsweek.
Lang’s proposals have raised concerns among legal experts, who say deputizing private militias for immigration enforcement could be dangerous.
"Since constitutional rules do not apply to private actors, authorizing vigilantes to round up and detain immigrants would allow these groups to engage in lawless activity and evade constitutional constraints for the protection of individual rights. It would allow arbitrary enforcement practices just as lawless as Lang’s insurrectionist conduct on January 6."
As Lang campaigns in Florida’s Senate race, his loyalty to Trump remains unwavering, echoing the president’s 2020 remarks to far-right groups and signaling that some January 6 participants are ready to act on his behalf.
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During the first 2020 presidential debate, Trump declined to explicitly condemn white supremacist and far-right extremist groups, including armed militias. When pressed on the issue by moderator Chris Wallace, Trump instead directed remarks to the Proud Boys, telling them to “stand back and stand by”.
"If President Donald J. Trump ever needs the January 6ers ever again, we are here. And we will not ever shrink from the calling of defending our country," Lang said.
Lang's Responses To *Newsweek'*s Questions
Why should voters give their support to you?
"If voters vote for me, they're voting for one thing: the Donald Trump mandate, the Donald Trump agenda, which will be vigorously fought for. I am a Trump loyalist, and he has saved my life, and I fight for the same values that he fights for. My candidacy is a symbol of the end of the weak-kneed, feckless Republican leadership of Mitch McConnell, and the spineless swamp jellyfish that are in the United States Senate representing the Republicans.
"They are a weak, weak group of people that do not represent the American fire, and the MAGA movement, and you would be hard-pressed to name a single MAGA Republican that represents the American people in the Senate. They're a bunch of country-club, uniparty Republicans, and so when the American people elect me, they're electing an end to an era of the uniparty deep state. And what they're doing is they're putting a firebrand, controversial, forward man in that office that is going to push the Trump agenda.
"My candidacy and my representation is symbolic of the entire political shift from the old-school Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, Republicanism to this new movement of the Make America Great Again, free-fighting Republicans.
Why should Republicans vote for you over Ashley Moody?
Ashley Moody is as establishment as it gets, and she has been embedded with the Republican Party and Ron DeSantis; she's a Ron DeSantis loyalist, and she does not have the ability to step outside of the popular voting opinion and lead with strength. She is a go-along-to-get-along Senate Republican. She will not stir things up, and the American people want change in the United States Senate.
You're now running for U.S. Senate, a branch of the same government your group tried to stop from functioning on Jan 6. So how can voters trust someone who tried to overturn the democratic process?
I think that question is misleading in its very nature. We were not there trying to stop any type of democratic process. We were there, in fact, supporting a free, fair, and legitimate election. It was the people, the Democratic Party, who stole the election; that was them trying to disrupt the democratic process. The American patriots who showed up on January 6 were doing their duty as citizens to ensure the will of the people was exercised. Furthermore, the Floridian voters are the most MAGA people in the country.
Do you accept that police officers were assaulted and that people died as a direct result of what happened that day?
That is also a misleading question. I do not believe that police officers were assaulted.
There's video footage of police officers being assaulted.
I don't believe those are assaults in the legal definition. I believe that those are self-defense, defense of a third person, and defense of a country. Assault is an illegal act. I believe all the acts that were done on January 6 were justified and therefore legal because we were attacked first [we were in a ] self-defense posture.
On top of that, our country, the very future of American liberty, is at stake, and we all know what the founding fathers had envisioned for our country. It's very clear in the Declaration of Independence, very clear in the Second Amendment, very clear that the American people have the right to defend themselves against tyranny, and so I do not accept your description of that day. I do say that there were four unarmed Americans who were murdered as a direct result of Capitol Police brutality.
Do you have any regrets about January 6?
No, January 6 was a day our founding fathers would have been standing shoulder to shoulder with us. I'm very proud to be a January 6 patriot and make a stand against tyranny, a stand against a stolen election, to come with peaceful intentions in my heart, to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus at the United States Capitol, and ultimately to drive out the tyrants, to push back upon the bullies, the murderers, the Capitol Police who murdered Ashli Babbitt and Roseanne Boyland. Roseanne Boyland died in my arms.
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