Sheriff Staged Arrest Campaign for Second Week

The feathered bastard has some coverage on what happened this past weekend near the macehualli day labor center at 25th st. and bell road in phoenix.
The Battle of Bell Road: Hundreds protest Sheriff Joe Arpaio's anti-immigrant dragnets.
and The Battle of Bell Rd., Part Deux: Mayor Phil Gordon blasts Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Also, there're some youtube videos up of thursday and/or friday nights: Racists and Sheriff Joe

SHERIFF ARPAIO CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL ALIENS

Arpaio Protesters Afraid For Their Safety

Joe Arpaio at Bell and Cave Roads

"This is War" Local AZ Immigration News

I've called it war before, and they all certainly talk and act like it's war, but until yesterday, i hadn't heard a local official call this situation war. Yesterday on a CNN show that must've been on around 4pm, they had sheriff joe on talking about his immigration crack-down. I distinctly heard him say, "This is war". I spent the last 10 minutes trying to find which show it was and if there was a transcript, but i don't have a lot of time right now. I don't think it's all that surprising anyway.


Here are some things going on lately (mainstream news stories on sheriff joe at the end):

Arizona Legislation Prohibits Renting To Illegal Immigrants

A new house bill targets where illegal immigrants can live.

The Appropriations Committee voted to make it illegal for landlords to rent to those who cannot prove their legal status.

Landlords who knowingly or recklessly rent to illegal immigrants in Arizona will be subjected to a penalty of up to $250 for each day of the violation.

Just two years after Escondido, CA gained media attention, when it passed a controversial law that punish landlords for renting to illegal immigrants, Arizona takes on the same route.

In Yuma, many property management companies are already taking their own measures.

Instead of having to figure out and verify who is legal, the legislation says they must ask prospective renters for one of 12 documents.

Governor OKs bill keeping illegal immigrants for having guns

Gov. Janet Napolitano signed legislation Friday designed to restore a state law keeping illegal immigrants from having firearms. The measure revamps a 4-year-old state law that was designed to mirror federal statutes that regulate who can and cannot possess a weapon.

But the state Court of Appeals ruled last year that federal statute - the one referred to in state law - specifically refers to weapons involved in interstate commerce.

The judges said that means people could be convicted of violating the state gun law only if prosecutors could prove the weapon in question was "shipped or transported in interstate commerce."

The new version fixes that by saying all foreigners in this state are forbidden from having guns.

House Supports Requiring Cops to Confront Immigration

The Arizona House gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a proposed requirement that city and county police agencies carry out programs for their officers to confront federal immigration violations.

Local agencies could meet the requirement by getting training for their police and jail officers, putting federal immigration agents in units within their departments or cultivating relationships with federal authorities to confront the problem.

"It's one way of dealing the immigration problem that lets the cities use the most efficient way that they have to do that," said Republican Rep. John Nelson of Litchfield Park, author of the proposal.

A small number of local police agencies in Arizona have already sought special training to enforcement federal immigration law.

Report: Hate Groups Growing in Arizona

Hate groups are increasing in America and no where faster than right here in Arizona, according to the "Year in Hate" report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The number of hate groups operating in America swelled by 48 percent between 2000 and 2007 according to the report.

In Arizona, we saw a 70 percent jump last year compared with 2006, says Matt Potock with the Southern Poverty Law Center. "I the case of Arizona, by our account the state went from 10 groups in 2006 to 17 in 2007 the following year. That really is a remarkable growth."

It's the biggest increase of any state.

"These include several different kinds of hate groups - Klan groups, neo-Nazi groups, in some case black supremacist groups as well as white supremacist groups," says Potock.

"Virtually all of these groups or the vast majority of them have turned almost 100 percent of their attention to immigration, specifically illegal immigration."

Combine that with the latest FBI statistics showing a big rise in hate crimes against Latinos, and Potok says it appears the hate propaganda is making its way into the mainstream.

Potock says there's been an 48 percent increase in the number of hate groups nationwide.

Arpaio launches undocumented immigration sweep in Valley

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio launches another immigration sweep in the Valley on Friday.

Business owners have complained about rising crime connected with undocumented immigrants in the area.

Opposing groups are on guard and ready to protest.

Those groups met with reporters on Wednesday with a message for Arpaio saying, "We'll be watching."

Lydia Guzman believes that Arpaio is breaking the law. "He is not the hero that he talks himself up to be."

Late last year, Arpaio reacted to email he says he received from a Central Phoenix business.

In the email, a business owner complained about the day laborers around 32nd Street and Thomas.

The owner claims the day laborers were causing problems and harassing customers.

The sheriff's office increased patrols in the area and over a period of several weeks, arrested more than 100 people and 94 of them were undocumented immigrants.

Now the sheriff is at it again, in a similar scenario with businesses not only in the central part of the Valley, but also to the north.

Opposing groups are outraged. "He's a villain, he's a criminal, and he's violating the law."

"They call me a racist, they call me KKK...they call me a Nazi," says Arpaio. "That's not going to deter me from doing my job. It's very simple. I will continue to enforce the immigration laws."

Arpaio continued to say that 140 of his deputies are trained in federal immigration laws.

However, close to 200 deputies set up the command post at 32nd street and Thomas, along with jail wagons, to launch the event.

Arpaio's Deputies, Posse Expand Patrols

Nearly 200 sheriff's deputies and posse members are poised to launch a new patrol in two areas of Phoenix after business owners complained of rising crime, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.

Owners complained of increases in criminal activity and other problems largely related to illegal immigrants and day laborers in their neighborhoods, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said.

Arpaio said he will send hundreds of volunteer armed posse men and women along with several ICE-trained deputies to saturate the two areas beginning Friday at 4 p.m....

Sheriff's patrols to target illegals

Sheriff's deputies and immigrant advocates are on a collision course that will send them to two busy intersections in Phoenix where day laborers gather.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he plans to dispatch nearly 200 deputies and armed posse members to the areas to patrol for possible criminal activity by illegal immigrants starting today.

Immigrant advocates countered that they're sending observers armed with video cameras to monitor law enforcement officials for civil rights violations.

The sheriff's office operation is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. at 32nd Street and Thomas Road, less than a mile from M.D. Pruitt's furniture store, where a similar operation resulted in heated exchanges and attracted national headlines last year.

Arpaio will also send patrols to 32nd Street and Bell Road two or three days later, though a specific date has yet to be determined.

Criminalizing People as a Political Act

I was listening to NPR today and happened to catch a segment on Talk of the Nation on "The Untold History of Post-Civil War 'Neoslavery'". In this segment, the author of the book called "Slavery by Another Name" talked about how after the emancipation proclamation went into effect, lots of black men were arrested for all sorts of crimes including vagrancy and various made-up crimes so that they could be made to work for free- thus a slavery by another name. First, i was disappointed that no one, no callers, nor the interviewee mentioned that this is still going on today in the prison industrial complex. How many black men are imprisoned right now?

Black males ages 25-29: 11,695 per 100,000. (That's 11.7% of Black men in their late 20s.) (Source).

Anyway, this discussion of laws created to basically continue to enslave mostly black men "after slavery" made me think of a point that i have made before about people being criminalized out of a political/economic motivation- specifically undocumented immigrants being made "illegal" to justify certain treatment. This way, they are kept from being able to fight, to some extent, for basic human rights, and people are made to actually believe that they don't deserve certain rights because they are "illegal". Of course, they are only "illegal" because it is in the interest of the government and businesses to make them so, so that we can have a permanent underclass to exploit the labor of. Anyway, you get the point.

More on Sheriff's Racial Profiling

Last night the sheriff's patrols were shorter than the night before.
Because i wrote my last post quickly, i wanted to add a couple things. One was that there were a few dozen people at the sheriff's department's staging area in a sort of protest. The primary objective was to let the people who were being brought in know that they have a right to a lawyer and they shouldn't say anything. There were people shouting these things by bullhorn. The people who were arrested were being taken to this area, and therefore could possibly see the signs or hear the shouts.
People were also shouting shame to the police officers for being part of this blatant racial profiling.
Another thing i left out was that there was a lot of media there and of course arpaio was there for that particularly earlier on. I have been unable to check out any of the media coverage so far.

Sheriff's office starts racial profiling campaign

For the second evening in a row, the sheriff's office is saturating an area of phoenix in order to pull over and arrest as many undocumented immigrants as they can. Last night and tonight, the sheriff's set up a large area in the parking lot of big lots on thomas with a command unit, stadium lights, and other large vehicles. Although they will say that they are only pulling over people committing crimes such as traffic violations, it can't be more blatant that they are going after specific people. For one, just read the press release the sheriff's office put out the other day, below.

Last night, one car that was stopped was pulled over for not having adequate lighting on their license plate. The driver was arrested and taken away.

I also heard that rusty childress was deputized as a posse member by sheriff joe. This is not the first anti-immigrant organizer to be part of his posse. Please see the article, MCSO Posse Member 's Hate Speech Against Immigrants. The sheriff allegedly spoke at one of the united for sovereign americans meeting the other day. It is rumored also that rusty childress was also caught prank calling a supporter of the local day laborers.

The press release below mentions written requests for police presence, which i heard that buffalo rick (the one who peed in public and got caught) was behind gathering support for this campaign. The mayor has said that the area the sheriff's office is targetting is not higher in crime than other areas of phoenix. There has also been another published study that shows undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than citizens.

Written requests for additional police presence and protection were sent to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio this week from business owners in two separate areas of Phoenix. Owners are complaining of increases in crime and other problems largely related to illegal immigrants and day laborers there.
As a result, Sheriff Arpaio is sending hundreds of volunteer armed posse men and women along with several ICE trained deputies to saturate the two areas beginning Friday, March 21, 2008.

“Businesses owners is these two parts of Phoenix have indicated to me that they are extremely frustrated with the growing problems associated with illegal immigration," Arpaio says. "They say they feel that only this Sheriff's Office will provide the kind of law enforcement help they want and need to reduce the problems."

Arpaio says nearly 200 Sheriff's posse men and deputies will patrol the areas looking for any and all criminal activity there. It is a repeat of the Thomas Road operations that occurred late last year when owners of the Pruitt's Furniture Store appealed to the Sheriff for help with their day laborer related problems. Over the duration of that operation, Arpaio says, over 134 of people were arrested and booked into jail, 94 of whom were determined to be illegal aliens.

"Any illegal immigrant whom we come across in the course of our crime suppression program in these two valley areas will be arrested and taken directly to jail," Arpaio says. (Source).

AZ Immigration News

Last week's news included, Immigration enforcement captures hundreds in state and Smuggling tie mulled in deaths.

The first article says,

More than 600 undocumented immigrants were arrested across Arizona in recent days, about double the average for this time of year, according to officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Roughly 110 undocumented immigrants also were discovered Monday at separate suspected drophouses in the west Valley, capping nearly a week of large busts of human-smuggling loads throughout metro Phoenix.

Katrina S. Kane is director of ICE detention and removal operations in Arizona. She said that cooperation between ICE and local law-enforcement agencies is "making it much more difficult for human smugglers to avoid detection in the Phoenix area."

Activity in illegal immigration typically is at its highest through May, but January and February were "relatively slow," said Vincent Picard, with ICE in Phoenix.

The second article is a very sad one, but it sheds light on the situation created by criminalizing people. In the article, sheriff joe has the nerve to say, "Every life is precious" but there is no doubt in my mind that he is directly contributing to this situation.

A spate of bodies that have turned up recently in the West Valley has Maricopa County sheriff's officials concerned that human smugglers are once again resorting to deadly violence.

The Sheriff's Office is investigating the killings of six people whose bodies have surfaced in locations around the West Valley in the past three weeks.

Sheriff's authorities said some of the tactics used in the murders, including a male victim found on Feb. 26 near an Avondale farm with his hands tied behind his back and a bullet wound to the back of his head, resemble those used by smugglers.

Three of the victims were determined to be in the country illegally; the identity and immigration status of the latest two, whose charred bodies were discovered in a car near Buckeye last week, are not yet known, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.

AZ Immigration News

Last week's news included, Immigration enforcement captures hundreds in state and Smuggling tie mulled in deaths.

The first article says,

More than 600 undocumented immigrants were arrested across Arizona in recent days, about double the average for this time of year, according to officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Roughly 110 undocumented immigrants also were discovered Monday at separate suspected drophouses in the west Valley, capping nearly a week of large busts of human-smuggling loads throughout metro Phoenix.

Katrina S. Kane is director of ICE detention and removal operations in Arizona. She said that cooperation between ICE and local law-enforcement agencies is "making it much more difficult for human smugglers to avoid detection in the Phoenix area."

Activity in illegal immigration typically is at its highest through May, but January and February were "relatively slow," said Vincent Picard, with ICE in Phoenix.

The second article is a very sad one, but it sheds light on the situation created by criminalizing people. In the article, sheriff joe has the nerve to say, "Every life is precious" but there is no doubt in my mind that he is directly contributing to this situation.

A spate of bodies that have turned up recently in the West Valley has Maricopa County sheriff's officials concerned that human smugglers are once again resorting to deadly violence.

The Sheriff's Office is investigating the killings of six people whose bodies have surfaced in locations around the West Valley in the past three weeks.

Sheriff's authorities said some of the tactics used in the murders, including a male victim found on Feb. 26 near an Avondale farm with his hands tied behind his back and a bullet wound to the back of his head, resemble those used by smugglers.

Three of the victims were determined to be in the country illegally; the identity and immigration status of the latest two, whose charred bodies were discovered in a car near Buckeye last week, are not yet known, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.

Anti-immigrant group confronted with mockery

Some coverage of the protest against the protesters who have been harassing day laborers and others for several weeks outside a day labor center:

Arizona Indymedia: Alienating the Minutemen

Feathered Bastard of New Times: Arty "aliens" lampoon nativists at Macehualli Work Center, ridicule Rick Galeener's alleged public pee fest.