Thread: AZ-Supervisors to accept $1.4M in immigration funds

Supervisors to accept $1.4M in immigration funds, sources say
by Yvonne Wingett - Jun. 24, 2009 11:22 AM

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Wednesday will accept $1.4 million in immigration funds that it denied last week, sources confirmed.

Last week, a motion to accept the money died in a 2-2 vote with the board deadlocked on whether County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio should receive the funds, given to the county from the state.

The money is meant to help Thomas enforce state employer-sanctions laws. A portion of the funds will be transferred to Arpaio's office for its assistance in the enforcement effort.
The swing vote on the issue, Chairman Max Wilson, will weigh in on the matter at 4 p.m. today and given his voting record, he will accept the money.

In May, the supervisors voted to accept $1.6 million from the state to help pay for illegal-immigration enforcement by Arpaio. Wilson was among the three Republican supervisors who voted to take the money.

Wilson has been out for medical reasons and missed last week's controversial vote.

Supervisors Fulton Brock and Andy Kunasek last week voted to accept the funds, and their votes will remain the same.

Supervisors Mary Rose Wilcox and Don Stapley, meanwhile, voted against accepting the money.

Thomas last week said he hoped the board would reconsider its decision; Arpaio said he believed the decision was personal.

Wilcox is the subject of a criminal investigation by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and the Sheriff's Office also was involved in a criminal investigation into Stapley, who was indicted in December on possible misstatements and omissions in his financial-disclosure forms. Both are out of town on business.

Wilcox, a vocal critic of immigration-enforcement procedures at the Sheriff's Office, has said she believes the funds are being "misused" by the Sheriff's Office. Stapley had said he voted no because the County Attorney's Office has "been unwilling to brief me on this," and he was worried the money is being improperly spent.

Reached in Washington, D.C. by phone Wednesday morning, Stapley questioned the efficacy of the state's employer-sanctions law: "They have yet to prosecute and convict a single employer. If the program isn't working, why are we pouring more money into it? And would this money not be better spent by the state of Arizona in other areas given the tremendous shortfall they have in the general fund?"


Reach the reporter at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com


http://www.azcentral.com/community/peor ... 25-ON.html

Sheriff Joe is the iron man. He is the UNTOUCHABLE...The cronies around him in state government are all dirty and should be thrown in prison.

Give Sheriff Joe a huge raise and funds for his department. He is a hero.