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Smile…You’re Under Arrest!
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known as “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” a name given to him years ago by the media, heads the Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff’s Office, employing over 3,000 people. Maricopa County includes Phoenix and covers 9,200 square miles; an area larger than some states.
He has over 10,000 prisoners in his jail system and started the nation’s largest tent city for convicted inmates. The Tent Jail houses 2,000 convicted men and women serving their sentences in a canvas incarceration compound. Sheriff Joe also reinstituted chain gangs, including the world’s first-ever female and juvenile groups. He has banned smoking, coffee, movies, pornographic magazines, and unrestricted TV in all jails and is well known for having all inmates wear pink underwear.
Sheriff Joe has been profiled in over 2,000 U.S. and foreign newspapers, magazines, and TV news programs, both for his success and controversy. He began his career as a federal narcotics agent and concluded his 32-year federal career as head of the DEA for Arizona. In 1992, Sheriff Joe became the Sheriff of Maricopa County and has since been re-elected to an unprecedented five 4-year terms. Schedule.
Illegal alien pleads guilty to ID theft
An illegal alien from Mexico who was living in Mesa, is facing at least two and a half years in prison for identity theft-related offenses after he bought a $33,000 truck and racked up nearly $800,000 in loans by using another person’s Social Security number, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced today. Story.
MICHELLE MALKIN: Immigration still plagues US
If you think the bad economy has “solved” America’s immigration problems, welcome to a reality check. It’s certainly true illegal crossings from the south are down and that many foreign workers are returning to their native lands as work dries up. But border chaos, haphazard enforcement, massive backlogs and deportation negligence remain the order of the day. A half-million citizenship applications have been pending for more than nine months. Some 700,000 illegal alien absconders - fugitives from deportation like Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango - are free. An estimated 4-5 million illegal visa overstayers from around the world remain in the country. Both Big Business and left-wing ethnic groups have colluded to prevent an employer verification program for workers’ citizenship status from getting implemented nationwide. And the borders are still largely borders in name only. Story.
Secure The Stupid Border, Stupid
Lou Dobbs Tonight — CNN — January 7
Casey Wian (CNN): Rusty Fleming, author of “Narco Warfare in the 21st Century” is meeting with El Paso city leaders Thursday.
Rusty Fleming: “Narco Warfare in the 21st Century”: There’s no solution outside of securing our southwest border. That is first and foremost. The next thing is we need to tighten security of southbound traffic. That is the traffic that goes from the U.S. into Mexico because that’s where the guns and the cash are going.
Wian: Guns and cash fueling the violence that’s increasingly threatening the United States.
Wian: Drug cartels were responsible for more than 1,600 murders in Juarez last year alone. To put that into perspective, the U.S. murder rate is about five and a half per 100,000 residents. In Juarez there are 117 murders for every 100,000 people, Lou.
Dobbs: It’s incredible. The people of Mexico are undergoing a nightmare that is getting so little attention from this government. Hopefully that will change. And the resistance to securing that border is utterly irrational. It’s extraordinary, what is being tolerated there by this government, by this administration.
Video Watch Transcript
NY Times — 1/8/09 — U.S. Plans Border ‘Surge’ Against Any Drug Wars
New Reality Show Exposes Broken Borders
The Department of Homeland Security is going Hollywood. A new primetime reality show “Homeland Security U.S.A.” depicts the challenges Borders and Customs officials face in trying to secure our borders and ports. Story.
Mr. Pearce pledges funds for Arpaio’s sweeps
State lawmakers will consider whether to continue spending tens of millions of dollars a year to arrest illegal aliens when the legislative session begins next week with Arizona’s government in a $3 billion hole. However, Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, pledges to protect money for operations that target illegal immigrants and to provide additional cash for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s controversial crackdowns. “Sheriff Joe (Arpaio) is going to get his $1.6 million back to go after human smuggling,” said Pearce, incoming chairman of the Senate appropriations committee. “In tough times or not, you can’t ignore killings and murders and maiming that are going on,” Pearce said of violence related to illegal immigration. “And you can’t back away from those commitments to do something about it.” Immigration enforcement will at least lose some of its funding, roughly $7 million, Pearce said. Story.
ICE insider seeks pardon for Ramos and Compean
A candidate for assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement urged President Bush in an open letter to pardon ex-Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Miguel Contreras, a retired federal investigative official, said he wrote the letter in hope the president will grant the two El Pasoans a pardon or reduce their sentences. “I reviewed everything I could find related to their cases, and based on my extensive experience, Compean and Ramos should be released and reinstated to their former jobs,” said Contreras, who lives in Yuma, Ariz., and retired as a federal supervisory criminal investigator. “I have not received a response.” Before retiring, Contreras, a security consultant, worked for 30 years for various law enforcement agencies and departments, including ICE, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Story.
Phoenician gets 1-year term for trying to smuggle in boy
A Phoenix woman was sentenced Monday to one year in federal prison for trying to smuggle a 6-year-old boy into the United States from Mexico. Lucia Guadalupe Leyva, 22, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Tucson to conspiracy to transport an illegal alien, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Leyva tried to cross the border in December 2007 through the pedestrian lane of the Nogales port of entry. She was carrying her 3-month-old son and escorting a 6-year-old boy whom she had agreed to take into the country. Leyva told customs officials that both boys were her own and presented birth certificates from two of her own children. An official became suspicious because the 6-year-old boy looked older than the age given on the birth certificate, the release said. Leyva then said she was not related to the older boy and the birth certificate did not belong to him, the release said. The boy was turned over to Mexican officials and was reunited with his family. Story.
Protect American Taxpayers, Stop Illegal Immigration Now
Revision sought for employer sanctions law
In its first year, the landmark Arizona law prohibiting employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants has produced no civil cases against businesses. One difficulty cited in bringing business-license suspension and revocation cases against employers is prosecutors’ lack of civil subpoena powers to make suspected violators hand over records and give testimony. Republican Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, who led the effort to create the law, said the only way prosecutors can now get hiring records in employer sanctions investigations is by pursuing criminal cases against workers who use fake IDs or stolen identities to land a job. “We know people are still playing games,” Pearce said. In the coming year, Pearce plans to ask the Legislature to revise the law so that prosecutors can have civil subpoena authority, a prospect that critics of the law said would be an unnecessary expansion of prosecutors’ powers. Story.
If you ain’t mad, you ain’t pay’in attention
Shelter Opens For Deported Illegals
S
IERRA VISTA, Ariz. — A resource center in Naco, Mexico that helps illegal aliens who are deported from Arizona has now opened a shelter where migrants can rest for the night. The Migrant Resource Center opened a year ago to offer food, drinks, clothing and advice to migrants freshly dropped off at the border by the U.S. immigration agents. About 8,000 deported illegal immigrants have sought help at the resource center since it opened on Jan. 5, 2008. Volunteers provide services such as food, water and clothing and help migrants find medical care or arrange a bus ride back home. The center is a bi-national effort of Citizens for Border Solutions in Bisbee, Ariz. and Iglesia del Camino in Naco. Story.
Will Bush Pardon Ramos & Compean?
President Bush has less than three weeks to pardon former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Some lawmakers are urging the president to pardon the two men – jailed for trying to protect our border. Video.
Illegal Aliens = “Hands off”
New U.S. Population Record for New Years’
The nation’s population is projected toreach 305,529,237 on New Year’s Day, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s nearly a one percent increase from last New Year’s. In January 2009, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds and one death every 12 seconds. Unrestricted mass immigration is expected to add one person every 36 seconds in January,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Story. Frosty.
Support Sheriff Joe Arpaio and His Local Immigration Enforcement Efforts
The Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board (ACRAB) has recommended that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors end the so-called Section 287(g) agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which allows the County Sheriff’s Office to enforce immigrations laws. County Manager David Smith will review the recommendation and report back to Board of Supervisors. The facts:
* Since the Board of Supervisors approved the Section 287(g) agreement in February 
2007, Sheriff’s deputies have arrested more than 1,455 suspected illegal immigrants, while jail officials have placed immigration holds on more than 19,808 people booked into jail on crimes. Don’t listen to the Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board, which wants to end one of the most effective programs the County has for stemming the tide of illegal immigration.
* The citizens of Maricopa County desire nothing more than to live in a fair and just county where the law is observed and those who break the law are punished. That’s why I am so happy the county has instituted a Section 287(g) program. The Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board is wrong in its accusations of related racial profiling and wrong to call for its termination. Please make sure that the program, and Sheriff Arpaio’s fine efforts, continue unabated.
* The Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board was appointed by Gov. Napolitano, a critic of Sheriff Arpaio who is going to head up the Homeland Security Department in the Obama Administration. I think the Board’s recommendations are a political maneuver, especially since the Board was supposed to be terminated under state law effective July, 31, 2008.
Please call and email Manager Smith and your County Supervisor to support the 287(g) program and Sheriff Arpaio’s efforts.
David Smith
Maricopa County Manager
(602) 506-1950
dsmith@mail.maricopa.gov
Fulton Brock (R)
Maricopa County District 1 Supervisor
(602) 506-1776
fbrock@mail.maricopa.gov
Andrew W. Kunasek (R)
Maricopa County District 3 Supervisor
(602) 506-7562
akunasek@mail.maricopa.gov
Don Stapley (R)
Maricopa County District 2 Supervisor
(602) 506-7431
dstapley@mail.maricopa.gov
MaryRose Wilcox (D)
Maricopa County District 5 Supervisor
(602) 506-7092
mrwilcox@mail.maricopa.gov
Max W. Wilson (R)
Maricopa County District 4 Supervisor
(602) 506-7642
mwwilson@mail.maricopa.gov