Arizona Police Launch First Immigration Crackdown After Law's Passage (VIDEO)

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio launched his latest crime and immigration sweep Thursday, arresting 89 people, with 61 suspected of being undocumented immigrants.

Arpaio, whose tough crackdowns have made him a hero in the anti-illegal immigration community, has conducted 14 of the sweeps since 2008. Critics allege Arpaio's deputies racially profiled Hispanics during the sweeps, but Arpaio says people were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes.

"We do not go on the street corner and grab people because they look like they're from another country," the self-styled "toughest sheriff in America" told the local ABC affiliate.

The sheriff claimed Wednesday that this latest crime sweep was scheduled weeks ago and was unrelated to Arizona's new anti-immigration law.

Arpaio has lauded the new law, however, saying it gives him new authority to detain undocumented migrants who aren't accused of committing any other crimes.

WATCH:

Comments

[Vincent Mercado]

07:35 PM on 05/23/2010

Undocumented workers would not be coming to the United States if there weren't a need for their services. Wealthy conservatives smile and count their profits while trailer park dwellers rant and complaint about the high price of mayonnaise. Go and do the menial jobs that they do, forget about the slave wages, you have to start somewhere. Get a job, stop spending your day posting idiotic thoughts and being fed right wing entertainment industrial complex propaganda.
I monitor "conservative" shows, it puzzles me the number of commercials for dental clinics offering services for people with rotten teeth, meth rehab clinics, legal services for tax cheaters, mail order pills for erectile disfunction, divorce lawyers specializing in spousal abuse cases, child support specialists, and bankruptcy services. This should give us an idea about who the anti immigrant posters are.

[frankg3400]

11:14 PM on 05/10/2010

This is not a result of the new law since the new law is not going to be implemented for 90 days (mid July 2010. These are sweeps that have been going on for quite awhile.

[byla]

09:28 AM on 05/08/2010

I find it kind of humorous that this Joe Arpaio is putting inmates in pink jumpsuits. It is not an original concept. A sheriff in Davidson, NC not only made his inmates wear pink jumpsuits but also made them live in pink cells. He was called the toughest sheriff in America. And he used to do a one hour show about it, until he got caught breaking the law. But before him, there was the sheriff in AR who made his inmates wear the old timey black and white striped jumpsuits, chain gang style. He didn't let his inmates smoke or watch tv. He was also called the toughest sheriff in America. Joe is a poser who is racial profiling.

[GrumpyinAZ]

10:20 AM on 05/06/2010

The Apartheit Law does not go into effect until September, I would say he is using the existing law

[nee]

01:09 AM on 05/07/2010

This is a constitutional law and has no resemblence to Apartheit. ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS no matter where they come from should GO HOME! Those who hire ILLEGALS should be HEAVILY fined and the jobs for ILLEGALS would dry up and they would self-deport. I wish CA would enact a similar law - one can only hope!

[MGhamma]

05:56 PM on 05/13/2010

Nee, what part of "the Arizona law hasn't gone into effect yet" don't you understand?

[huffyou]

11:43 PM on 05/05/2010

Mexicans have no honor

Because of a financial debt owe to France in 1860 that Benito Juarez did not want to repay
France had no choice but to invade Mexico and on May 5th, 1862 in Puebla the Mexican army won a single battle against the French but not the war....

Happily, France won less than two years after their defeat at Puebla, they had full control of the Country, and had run Juarez into exile.
That date is May 31, 1863 and still celebrated French Legionnaires the world over.

That is the date that should be celebrated

And today Mexicans are still showing they have no honor by bypassing the legal protocols of coming to America...

There are more citizens and legal immigrants that support the law than not.....let's work to get them out..all you do is.....

Show your support for the new law (copy and paste to all related boards)

stop illegal immigration

http://www.janbrewer.com/where-i-stand/stopping-illegal-immigration

[WOODSTOCKER51]

08:32 AM on 05/03/2010

HOW MANY SCHOOL TEACHERS WITH "ANY TYPE OF ACCENT".........WERE ARRESTED?........

[N america]

01:09 PM on 05/02/2010

In every country everywhere around the world police is charged with checking your legal status or citizenship when legal contact is made ( by the way I was on a trip in 84 in BAja cal and the bus got stopped by police ..guess who's only papers they checked ..yep mine ..blond blue eyes ..)

In Mexico if you get caught being illegal there is a fine and 2 years jail time on 1st offense and 10 years jail on second plus they have been violating human rights for decades check Amnesty International latest report...

You know what the Mex gov responded "yes we will check in to it" and hush it...

Go Arizona show illegals where the waiting line is but I say welcome to legal immigrants.

[sisyphus93]

02:16 PM on 05/02/2010

The Mexican government is all-too-happy to burden us with their poor and their sick. American liberals are all-too-gullible, and therefore happy, to be burdened.

[WOODSTOCKER51]

08:37 AM on 05/03/2010

AND AMERICAN CORPORATIONS ARE "ALL TO HAPPY TO HIRE THEM FOR CHEAPO"............AND AVOID THE LAWS THAT ARE CURRENTLY IN PLACE!

.YOU STINK OF THE REAL PROBLEM THERE SISY......

[N america]

12:59 PM on 05/02/2010

Freedom is not a word all by itself, it only works with law and order and the enforcement of those laws defines the integrity of our freedoms...

One politician described being in America as a visit to Disney World once you are in you don't want to have to show your ticket again and again....

Fine by me if everybody follows the rules but some want to cut in line and jump the fence without buying a ticket (illegals) and the rest of us following the rules have to pay for them..

Are we going to take that ... hell no....If all it takes is a biometric ID I am all for it.
( you are already need to have an ID when you drive )

Go Arizona ..if you are a legal immigrant welcome... if you are illegal we will show you where the line starts ..at the border on the other side of the fence wait your turn like anybody else....we need the same enforcement everywhere not only for our freedoms but also security and prosperity...

[sisyphus93]

02:17 PM on 05/02/2010

Disney is a fantasyland, much like the world liberals seem to live in.

[WOODSTOCKER51]

08:38 AM on 05/03/2010

AND "CAPITLISMLAND" IS WHERE "FREE MARKET- NONE-REGULATED" FOLKS LIKE YOURSELVES HIDE........WHILE BREAKING CURRENT LAWS....

[Elishia Windfohr]

10:29 AM on 05/02/2010

Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where the crime these aliens commit is highest, the police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their immigration status. In Los Angeles, for example, dozens of members of a ruthless Salvadoran prison gang have sneaked back into town after having been deported for such crimes as murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and drug trafficking. Police officers know who they are and know that their mere presence in the country is a felony. Yet should a cop arrest an illegal gangbanger for felonious reentry, it is he who will be treated as a criminal, for violating the LAPD’s rule against enforcing immigration law.

The LAPD’s ban on immigration enforcement mirrors bans in immigrant-saturated cities around the country, from New York and Chicago to San Diego, Austin, and Houston. These “sanctuary policies” generally prohibit city employees, including the cops, from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities.

Such laws testify to the sheer political power of immigrant lobbies, a power so irresistible that police officials shrink from even mentioning the illegal-alien crime wave

[JoannainPA]

10:21 AM on 05/02/2010

So, 89 people were arrested , with 61 suspected of being undocumented immigrants. Why were the other 28 people arrested??

[Huero]

01:13 PM on 05/02/2010

The 61 were arrested for something other than being undocumented. This is a crime sweep, not an immigration sweep as the first paragraph would like to to think. So they pull someone over for an offense, perhaps during the course of the traffic stop they found drugs, no DL, suspended DL wanted on a warrant. For those things they can be arrested. The guy in the clip just got a ticket.

There is a lot of misinformation going around.

[keepemhonest]

09:47 AM on 05/02/2010

What happens to a LEGAL citizen in AZ if their wallet and/or purse has been stolen and thus they have no ID on them?

[Jon Dorian]

11:03 AM on 05/02/2010

They need to report in to the police.

[Huero]

01:14 PM on 05/02/2010

Same thing that happens now.

[Havana Thinks]

09:41 AM on 05/02/2010

I would find many police officers anxious having to 'round up' people who are Brown-skinned in order to keep their jobs. How much greater is the tension when the officer is a minority also? Can the officer truly separate his/her emotions when in the heart feeling this is a racist law(?) How well do they sleep @ night or do they take medications or drink more than they should to mask their feelings?
This law is tearing Arizona apart physically, emotionally, economically and morally. I will B praying each night for the people and the state legislatures 2 resolve this emotion-charged law and find a better way 2 help all involved.

[deschl]

09:34 AM on 05/02/2010

Kinda reminds me of Nazi Germany during the roundup of the jews

[keepemhonest]

09:45 AM on 05/02/2010

Exactly ... especially the part that allows me or you to sue a cop for NOT asking someone "we" think is alien for their papers.

[nee]

01:19 AM on 05/07/2010

If someone is involved in police activity they should have to show ID. If they don't have any they should be brought in - if they are here ILLEGALLY they should be deported!

[Jon Dorian]

11:06 AM on 05/02/2010

The Jews for that time were not illegal aliens. And Germany didn't deport the Jews; they murdered them.

[Huero]

01:19 PM on 05/02/2010

Right, It is a sad and offensive comparison. It is unbelievable the over reaction to this law.

[deschl]

07:13 AM on 05/03/2010

they did not murder them initially they made them identify that they were jews by having them wear the star of david no one knew at the time what it was going to eventually lead to. the jews opened a center to remind people of what happens when things such as this are allowed to happen, they were targets of religious profiling initially.

[Patriotallday]

08:31 AM on 05/02/2010

-----An article taken from the Law Enforcement Examiner -----------

On April 7, 2007, the US Justice Department issued a report on criminal aliens that were incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails.

In the population study of 55,322 illegal aliens, researchers found that they were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. Nearly all had more than 1 arrest. Thirty-eight percent (about 21,000) had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32 percent (about 18,000) had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26 percent (about 15,000) had 11 or more arrests. Most of the arrests occurred after 1990.

They were arrested for a total of about 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging about 13 offenses per illegal alien. One arrest incident may include multiple offenses, a fact that explains why there are nearly one and half times more offenses than arrests. Almost all of these illegal aliens were arrested for more than 1 offense. Slightly more than half of the 55,322 illegal aliens had between 2 and 10 offenses.

More than two-thirds of the defendants charged with an immigration offense were identified as having been previously arrested. Thirty-six percent had been arrested on at least 5 prior occasions; 22%, 2 to 4 times; and 12%,1 time.

[keepemhonest]

09:54 AM on 05/02/2010

You don't mind sharing the DOJ link to your stats do you?

[Elishia Windfohr]

10:27 AM on 05/02/2010

http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/OJP/a0707/chapter1.htm

[GinaMariaSpaghetti]

12:35 PM on 05/02/2010

How does this stack up against all other convicted criminals incarcerated in our prisons and jails? Are they more violent, less violent? Are their offenses felonious? I'm just not sure that these numbers are relevant to any point you might be trying to make. "Arrest" does not mean anything more than stopping a person. It's more telling to say a person was booked, charged and convicted. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics."

[Portagee]

10:26 AM on 05/30/2010

Can you explain why that matters?
We're talking about many thousands of violent crimes committed by people who aren't supposed to be here.
We don't have enough home grown criminals?

[Elishia Windfohr]

07:53 AM on 05/02/2010

Seriously these Sheriff's have to fell like the most hated guys in town!

[Huero]

01:21 PM on 05/02/2010

Well maybe the criminals hate him. He keeps getting re-elected so....