Sheriff Joe "Pinkie" Arpaio Is At It Again

[WaTcHeR]

5/04/06 - PHOENIX, AZ - A posse of 100 volunteers and sheriff's deputies will patrol the Phoenix area and arrest any illegal immigrants, the county sheriff said.

The group likely will be deployed across parts of Maricopa County by the weekend, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Wednesday.

Volunteers will be drawn from the department's 3,000-member posse, whose members are trained and are often former deputies.

"It's important to send the message out to stay in Mexico and don't come roaming around here hoping you're going to get amnesty," said Arpaio, who in years past gained notoriety for putting inmates on chain gangs and issuing them striped uniforms and pink underwear.

Arpaio's deputies have already arrested about 120 illegal immigrants using a new state smuggling law.

"We're going to arrest any illegal who violates this new law," he said. "I'm not going to turn these people over to federal authorities so they can have a free ride back to Mexico. I'll give them a free ride into the county jail."

Under the law -- as interpreted by the Maricopa County attorney -- illegal immigrants can be arrested and prosecuted for conspiracy to smuggle themselves into the country. The law's authors have said they intended it to be used to prosecute smugglers, not the immigrants being smuggled.

Lawyers for nearly 50 undocumented immigrants charged with conspiracy to commit human smuggling have filed motions to have the charges dismissed.

A Los Angeles attorney brought into the case last week by the Mexican Consul General's Office in Phoenix plans to file another motion claiming Maricopa County Attorney officials are violating state and federal law because it's the federal government's job to control illegal immigration.

Both motions are to be argued in county court on May 23.

[johnny]

Works for me. Time to wall off Mexico.

[WaTcHeR]

I really don't think it matters to Sheriff Joe Arpaio what color the skin is of the person, just as long as they have a bulge in their panties for the sheriff to admire.

[WaTcHeR]

05/12/2006 - AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- Following a week of tough talk, a 250-member sheriff's posse that was assembled to catch illegal immigrants made just one arrest in its first desert search early Thursday.

The posse - made up of Maricopa County sheriff's deputies and trained volunteers - launched night patrols Wednesday in the desert and along major roads southwest of Phoenix.

Deputies attempted to pull over a pickup truck about 12:45 a.m. Thursday, but the truck took off in the desert and its 15 to 20 occupants scattered. Only one person was tracked down, despite night-vision equipment, spotlights and a helicopter.

"It just makes me angry," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. "People say these are helpless people coming into the United States just to work, and yet when they see law enforcement, they run. If they were trying to obey the law, why are they running?"




Arpaio speculated that the night was slow because potential border crossers have heard about that the county is cracking down. He said the operation will continue.

Arpaio's posse is looking to arrest illegal immigrants under a new state law that allows local law enforcement to arrest and charge immigrant-smugglers with felonies. Sheriff's officials already have arrested 147 illegal immigrants and smugglers under the law.

A human-rights group is challenging County Attorney Andrew Thomas' contention that the law applies to illegal immigrants as well as immigrant smugglers.

[johnny]

Most likely, the Feds alerted the Mexicans where the Maricopa deputies were patrolling...they do it to the Minutemen, too.