Arpaio stares down feds in NW Valley immigration sweep

Sheriff Joe Arpaio wants Maricopa County residents to know he’s not changing how he conducts his crime suppression sweeps, in spite of the federal government’s limitation of the sheriff’s officers to act as federal immigration agents.

“We will continue to do what we have been doing, and target human smuggling, employee sanctions and any criminal activity we come across,” Arpaio told a group of reporters on Friday evening at the District 3 substation in Surprise. “I will be doing the same job, which is to enforce state laws, arrest (criminals) and book them into the county jail.”

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The press conference was held in conjunction with the sheriff’s 12th crime suppression operation, which began at noon and will continue for approximately 48 hours, targeting the Northwest Valley.

As of midnight Thursday, according to the federal government, sheriff personnel may not prosecute those in the country illegally, but instead those suspected of being illegal will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for investigation and possible prosecution.

Arpaio and his deputies may now only check the immigration status of jail inmates.

Arpaio is the subject of a Justice Department investigation triggered by complaints of racial profiling, which Arpaio denies.

Arpaio said his department was responsible for investigating arresting and detaining 33,000 suspected illegal immigrants, which represents about 25 percent of the nations’ illegal immigrant arrests.

“We did our job,” Arpaio said.

Arpaio said he is looking into challenging the limitations now imposed on the department and will have the county attorney determine whether state and local laws would supersede federal orders.

“We don’t have to be controlled by Washington in everything we do,” Arpaio said.

The sheriff was nearly drowned out by a small group of protesters who chanted through the entire press conference.

The group, carrying signs that read “We are Human,” used a microphone and protested against Arpaio's alleged human rights violations.

One of them, Jack Gilman, 70, of Surprise, said he was against Arpaio’s alleged racial profiling and treatment of undocumented immigrants.

“They aren’t bothering anyone, they aren’t taking jobs away from Americans,” Gilman said. “And he’s treating them like they are the scum of the earth.”

Arpaio said the crime sweep on Friday had so far garnered the detention of eight suspected illegal immigrants near I17 and Anthem on human smuggling charges.

“And if we don’t have enough to arrest them, we’ll turn them over to ICE,” Arpaio said, adding that the paperwork and manpower that used to be used by the sheriff’s office for those duties is now being shouldered by ICE.

Arpaio said the sheriff’s department will now be using volunteer posse members to ride along and videotape activities of the sheriff’s department employees in response to his critics videotaping similar activities.

He would not say how many cameras would be in operation, nor how much was spent on the equipment, but did say at least part of it was paid for by RICO funds.
“We’ll be using video (cameras) to tape the activities of the deputies,” Arpaio said. “They are performing their duties, and we want to show that they don’t  do anything wrong.”

Arpaio said Saturday night’s crime suppression sweep “may have some surprises.”

“We’ll be (targeting) all phases of illegal activity,” Arpaio said.



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