http://prescottdailycourier.com/main.as ... 9&TM=35463


5/7/2006 4:00:00 AM
Arpaio is on the right track
What? Put an illegal immigrant in jail? What a novel concept in today's political climate.

However, that's exactly what Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio started doing this past week under a new law aimed more at drug smugglers and "coyotes" who bring in illegal immigrants than at immigrants themselves.

The Associated Press reported this past week that Maricopa County's sheriff has directed deputies and members of his 3,000-member unpaid reserve posse to patrol the southern reaches of the county and round up illegals.

As of Wednesday night, the team had put more than 100 suspected illegals in jail under a state smuggling law that went into effect this past August.

"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," Arpaio told the AP. "They ought to stay cool, stay in Mexico and wait until this illegal immigration problem is solved. If they don't do that and they come to Maricopa County, they're going straight to jail."

To be sure, Arpaio is a skilled politician, and anyone who gets between him and a battery of cameras may be in great physical danger. However, he's read the tea leaves correctly on this issue, and whatever he's getting out of it, he at least is doing something the federal government, the state government and U.S. Border Patrol haven't been doing with equal zeal.

A recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll after the "Day Without an Immigrant" marches showed that 62 percent of the respondents said the demonstrations convinced them of the need for better border security. The poll had a plus-or-minus 3 percent margin of error.

Everyone can sympathize with the plight of people driven from their own corruption-riddled country in search of a better life here, but they have to do it legally.

More Arizona sheriffs and police officers should take Arpaio's lead.