Alleged Illegal Immigrant Using Dead Teen's ID

Arpaio says he won't resign

Updated: Sunday, 11 Dec 2011, 2:48 PM MST
Published : Saturday, 10 Dec 2011, 5:36 PM MST

CHANDLER, Ariz. - Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies were raiding a Chandler restaurant Saturday evening as part of an identity theft operation.

Authorities executed a search warrant involving 10 suspects and arrested five of them.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies for several years have been raiding businesses where they suspect illegal immigrants are working using false identity documents. This was their 56th raid.

Sheriff's spokesman Christopher Hegstrom says the raid began just before 5 p.m.

The business that was raided is Si Senor Restaurant near North Alma School Road and Ray.

It's suspected that the business not only knew the employees were using fake IDs, but assisted them in identity theft. Using false identification is a felony.

The office said one of the suspects was allegedly using the identity of a Gilbert teenager who died in May.

"Illegal aliens are stealing identities of U.S. citizens to gain employment, while causing problems for citizens who did nothing wrong. This will not be tolerated, and we will continue to enforce the illegal immigration laws by continuing to raid private businesses, human smuggling and crime suppression operations," Arpaio said in a news release.

"One of the benefits of these employer sanctions/identity theft operations is that they open up job opportunities for legal citizens," he said.

As for the idea of resigning, Arpaio said he's not going anywhere anytime soon.

“This is a political situation. We cleared up our mess in 2007, and my message to everybody is I’m going to be around. I will continue to enforce all the laws, including the illegal immigration laws that they don’t like me to do,â€