Arizona Immigrant Witch Hunter Handcuffed
New America Media, News Analysis, By Henry Fernandez, Posted: May 20, 2008
Editor's Note: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s unconstitutional Latino witch hunt will no longer be subsidized by the state of Arizona. It turns out that while Arpaio had his deputies were stopping anyone who looked like a Latino immigrant, there were 60,000 real felons running around Arizona. Henry Fernandez is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, focusing on state and municipal policy.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s unconstitutional Latino witch hunt will no longer be subsidized by the State of Arizona.
It turns out that while Arpaio had his deputies stopping anyone who looked like a Latino immigrant, there were 60,000 real felons running around Arizona. Apparently Governor Janet Napolitano has had enough. This week, she took $1.6 million from Arpaio and redirected it to a new state-run fugitive task force to get real criminals off the street. Of course, this was supposed to have been Arpaio’s job all along.
For those not familiar with Arpaio, he is a media hound, once even doing a pilot for a comedic Fox-TV police reality show. On another occasion, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down his efforts to run his own reality show via Webcam over the Internet because it violated prisoner rights. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal. How any of this clowning would have reduced crime remains unclear.
Without his own show, Arpaio encourages TV news cameras to ride along with his deputies as they hunt down undocumented immigrants. Lacking any particular insight into who is or is not an immigrant, Arpaio’s tactics have consistently disrupted the lives of Latino U.S. citizens and terrorized families in Phoenix and surrounding towns. He even requires that victims and witnesses of crime prove their immigration status. This absurdity actually encourages crime by ensuring that many immigrants will not report crime.
An estimated 48,000 individuals charged with or convicted of felonies, including violent crimes, are currently on the loose in Maricopa County. Despite the obvious need to apprehend these people, Arpaio spends his time elsewhere. Cameras in tow, he sweeps into Latino neighborhoods with large numbers of deputies, and stops as many people as possible on the basis of alleged motor vehicle violations, but in fact looking for undocumented immigrants. That these immigrants are generally hard working, and not a threat to anyone, does not matter to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Nor does the fact that lots of citizens who do not realize their tail light is burned out are subjected to interrogation to prove their right to reside in the United States.
The Bush administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has cheered on Arpaio’s behavior. ICE’s lack of concern for the civil rights of Latinos is not surprising given the large number of lawsuits currently pending against ICE by Latino citizens, who allege that their homes were invaded by gun wielding federal agents demanding that they prove their right to reside in the country in which they were born.
Reasonable elected officials in Arizona have long called for an end to Arpaio’s defiance of the Constitution. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has asked the FBI to investigate Arpaio for a "pattern and practice of conduct that includes discriminatory harassment, improper stops, searches and arrests."
The governor’s decision will make Arizona residents safer, even if it does not stop Sheriff Arpaio’s quest for attention.
Related Articles:
Immigration Fight Moves to the States
Immigration Shaping Up as Wedge Issue
Page
1 of 1
|
User Comments
Anonymous14 on May 25, 2008 at 07:01:52 said:
If Latinos would turn in the illegal immigrants among them, there would be no problem. But they harbor these criminals or at least pretend they aren't there. So, yeah, their lives are disrupted, it's too bad, but to be expected.
RAshton on May 24, 2008 at 22:14:22 said:
We The People, who are citizens of the United States of America, need an Arpaio in every county. Great job Joe.
No state taxes paid till every illegal is off welfare rolls, out of public schools, without jobs citizens should have and deported. No state taxes paid till Joe gets his money, till Joe rolls on illegals.
DHard3006 on May 24, 2008 at 10:33:46 said:
Arresting illegal immigrants has nothing to do with racism. At every crime sweep more then just illegal immigrants from Mexico have been arrested. Why does there appear to be a large portion of arrested illegal immigrants that are from Mexico? Simple the state of AZ is just right north of the third world country called Mexico.
Doing crime sweeps like this in other parts of the USA would have different numbers of people based on their country of origin. The east coast would have different numbers then the west coast of America.
As for the 48,000 individuals charged with or convicted of felonies, including violent crimes that have warrants. These were accumulated under the very eyes of Governor Janet Napolitano when she was the Attorney General for AZ. That three finger thing. You know when a person starts pointing fingers there are always three fingers of their hand pointed back at the person doing the pointing.
Robert Redford on May 21, 2008 at 05:19:39 said:
Applause Please......... For a sheriff who is doing the job he was appointed to do... "Arrest Law Breakers". I don't care if they are working, sleeping, drunk or attending church, If they are here illegally, they are LAW BREAKERS and need to be arrested and sent back. If they have broken other laws while here, Lock em up and make them pay for their crimes. And for the record, when the Sheriff is making his sweeps, he catches all varieties of "VERMIN" in his nets, White/Black/Brown/Red and Yellow. You get what you're hunting for by hunting where the targets abound. ((((BIG PAT ON THE BACK JOE)))))
Mike Romer on May 20, 2008 at 22:22:16 said:
Why is it the author of this article didn't research further into the 60,000 plus felony warrants and find out how many of those 60,000 fled back to Mexico when they skipped bail or bond? It should reveal a interesting number
To call a law enforcement officer upholding the laws of the land a witch hunter is absurd on it's face.
The man and the people he hired to enforce laws are doing what they were hired to do.
Maybe he should be kind and send them all to San Francisco, that way, if SF ever encounters an attack, they can call on their illegal aliens to bear arms for them, leaving the US Marine Corps free to defend us that support them. After all, any military presence seems to be hated in the city by the bay.
The author of this ridiculous article seems to have lost touch with reality. I hope they have good mental hospitals in SF, they are going to need them very soon.
How about letting the state of Arizona take care of its own problems and worry about your own?
nativessayno on May 20, 2008 at 16:00:58 said:
Steve:In Los Angeles there are two discrete sets of "laws". The actual laws for citizens and the non-enfored ones for illegal immigrants. The motto protect-and- service should say: "serving illegals with that extra effort to not enforce since you are poor humble victims and besides Tony V. wants you to help him run the city too eventually".
As a citizen and first american I think I know the history of the US....its crimes and virtues. This does not preclude making an open border for worker frauds and MILLIONS of illegal immigrants aka squatters in my country.
Napolitano and Villar do have political ambitions and gambits up their sleeve, unfortunately they are at the expense of citizens and citizen's rights and the spoils go to Latinos that break our laws.
Pricilla Johnson on May 20, 2008 at 14:12:43 said:
I have no problem with \"legel\" immigration. I have a BIG problem with \"illegal\" immigration.
Why do much of the media now try to fudge it and make them one of the same. Is this \"political correctness\"? There is an important distinction.
I wonder why the Mexican government and the Mexican citizens think it is America\'s responsibility to take care of their citzenry?
As far as coming to America because they need to support their children, whatever happened to waiting until you can AFFORD children to have them? Why is it my responsibility to take care of children or people and general, whether they are Mexican or American?
Mexico is home of the richest man in the world. It is not the poorest of countries. Let Mexico take care of Mexicans.
I would like to personally ask the President of Mexico \"why is it America\'s responsibility to take care of the people of Mexico and not the Mexican government?\"
I am a person of color so this isn\'t about racism. This is about what is right. Come here legally and I am on your side.
ed nowak on May 20, 2008 at 12:55:39 said:
I personally enjoy the attention Arpaio brings to the table. We already have "sanctuary cities" we don't need a "sanctuary state". The rest of the country needs to kept up to date on what is being done to actually do something about illegal aliens.
I don't care who gets the free PR as long as the job is being done
You write as if none of these illegal aliens he arrests are not breaking the law. Some must be when our prision and jail populations exceed 30% for illegal aliens.
This a very skewed article and does not reflect both sides of the discussion fairly.
POOR JOURNALISM on the part of the author.
Steve on May 20, 2008 at 12:28:47 said:
Nativessayno: Asking a public official to follow the law is a gambit? Spoken like one of the 29% that still approves of Bush.
The sheriff is not doing his job, which is to protect and serve the people in his county. His job is not to conduct immigration sweeps, especially at the expense of public safety.
Arpaio has been an embarassment for a long time. These latest tactics are both wrong-minded and illegal.
Local law enforcement is directly at odds with enforcing immigration policies. Such actions have proven unsuccessful in other states. When people (regardless of immigration status) are afraid to contact the police, fire or medical services due to their immigration status, the results have been crimes not being reported and people dying as a result of not receiving care. Encouraging people to act outside of the law is not the answer, and Arpaio would not be the subject of legal inquiry by other officials if his actions were aboveboard.
Ours is a country built on the backs of immigrants of all skin tones. Everyone who is here should be treated with respect, particularly by those whose duty is to 'protect and serve'.
nativessayno on May 20, 2008 at 09:27:11 said:
Napolitano has big political amibitions and this is a highly strategic gambit.
-->Let me get this straight. A sheriff want to and does do his job and also wants illegal immigrants deported....and this makes him a "witch hunter" how? This political football is in a parallel universe where illegals call the shots and if others don't like it: sue, demand, call names- do anything but abide by US laws....and GET AWAY WITH IT! EVEN BE ENCOURAGED. This is so wrong!