Sheriff Joe Arpaio's crime sweep of west Phoenix continues

JJ Hensley -
May. 1, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic .

Even by Sheriff Joe Arpaio's standards, the timing of his "crime-suppression operation" this week seemed impeccable, though the effort had been in the works for nearly a month.

With Arpaio's 15th crime-suppression operation coming just a week after Gov. Jan Brewer approved a new immigration law for Arizona, there was renewed focus on the actions of Arpaio's deputies and his agency's approach to rooting illegal immigrants out of Maricopa County.

The image of deputies swarming a wide swath of west Phoenix while the state is making national headlines with its new law left many wondering: Is this how Arizona will look when the legislation takes effect?

That answer won't come until late July - or later, if a group forces the measure onto ballots.

A state agency responsible for training police officers will play a big role, too, as representatives begin the process of trying to piece together a curriculum everyone can agree on.

But there's little doubt that the people behind the immigration bill - Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, and Kris Kobach, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law who has become a fixture in Arizona - had Arpaio's approach in mind when they wrote the law.

"Arizona law enforcement can make a real difference by gradually ratcheting up the level of enforcement one click at a time," Kobach said, pointing to the Legal Arizona Workers Act that took effect in early 2008 and Arpaio's sweeps that began soon after.

"Maricopa County began systematically enforcing the human-smuggling act; now Arizona is turning it one notch stronger with this act," Kobach said.

The overlap between Arpaio's approach and the new state law is undeniable, and that similarity lies in the "reasonable suspicion" component that has led to allegations, federal investigations and lawsuits charging that Arpaio's deputies target residents based on race.

That's also what critics of the legislation fear the most.

Kobach produced a training video for sheriff's deputies that includes a section on what can constitute "reasonable suspicion" that a person is in the country illegally.

Among the 20 items Kobach lists are demeanor, language, dress and presence in areas known for drophouses or human smuggling.

Kobach stresses in the video that it takes more than one factor to add up to "reasonable suspicion."

That overlap doesn't mean the new state law is an extension of Arpaio's practices, Kobach said.

"This law doesn't force police officers to make any stop, it doesn't force them to engage in any enforcement of any particular law, it just kicks in on its own," he said. "It doesn't force agencies to go out on patrol. It doesn't force agencies to enforce the human-smuggling statute."

Whatever differences may exist between the sheriff's approach and the state law, the goals are the same: to make life as uncomfortable as possible for illegal immigrants in Arizona in the hopes of driving them somewhere else.

Authorities call it "voluntary compliance."

It extends from operations targeting human smugglers and illegal workers to run-of-the-mill Arizona residents who are in the country illegally.

"It shuts them down, even if it's just for a couple of days," said Brian Sands, Arpaio's deputy chief who oversees the office's Human Smuggling Unit. "It sends them a warning to let them know maybe they ought to move their operation somewhere else, outside of Maricopa County."

Both Sands and Kobach point out that the new state law requires police officers to have contacted someone for a suspected criminal violation before they can start asking about immigration status.

Much of the work that sheriff's deputies do to target illegal immigrants is covered by the state's human-smuggling law and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas' interpretation that illegal immigrants can be charged as co-conspirators in their own smuggling.

How Thomas' interim replacement, Rick Romley, interprets that law could affect Arpaio's ability to rely on it while conducting crime sweeps in Valley neighborhoods.

"We're doing a review of all of it," Romley said of Thomas' legal opinions, which laid the groundwork for Arpaio's enforcement measures.

But the new state law diminishes any potential impact of Romley's review.

The statute requires law-enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law and to try to determine a suspect's immigration status if they have reason to believe the person is in the country illegally.

In addition to authorizing local police to conduct the kind of immigration-enforcement efforts Arpaio's deputies have become famous for, the law targets day laborers, people with falsified documents and cities that execute so-called "sanctuary" policies that discourage police from asking about a person's immigration status when it is not relevant.

But the case of Sergio Martinez-Villaman offers a glimpse at what critics of the law fear most.

Sheriff's deputies stopped Martinez-Villaman, a Mexican citizen living legally in the U.S., during a June 2008 crime-suppression operation in Mesa.

Martinez-Villaman gave the arresting deputy a host of documents - including an Arizona ID card, proof of insurance, a passport and visa, according to court records - but a deputy arrested him for failure to use a turn signal and produce a driver's license.

Martinez-Villaman was jailed and held for 13 days when he couldn't pay bond, even though jail personnel told Martinez-Villaman that there were no immigration holds on him, according to court records.

Martinez-Villaman is suing Arpaio and the deputy who arrested him.

Kobach believes Arizona's new law could actually prevent situations like that from happening in the future.

"It will ensure that an officer as soon as practicable confirms or dispels any reasonable suspicion he may have," Kobach said. "In that case, the federal government could have confirmed over the telephone."

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