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Flushing Them Out

Continued from page 1

Published on December 27, 2007

But this is a fight that began back in November 2004, when a conservative lawyer named Andrew Thomas ran for office on a get-tough immigration platform. The pundits scoffed, noting that the county attorney technically has very little to do with illegal immigration, a federal issue. But Thomas has delivered on his campaign promises. In doing so, he's become a national spokesman for the anti-immigration movement.

From his attack on the judiciary, to his promise to aggressively enforce a new employer-sanctions law aimed at businesses who hire undocumented workers, to his intense lobbying for a ballot measure that denies bail to illegal immigrants accused of committing felonies, to his campaign against identity theft, almost every political move Thomas makes has anti-immigrant rhetoric at its root.

And these days, Arpaio is right by his side.

Together, they've succeeded in terrorizing the undocumented residents of Maricopa County. Consider:

• Thomas' controversial interpretation of Arizona's anti-smuggling statute. The county attorney accuses all people who are smuggled into the state of conspiring to smuggle themselves, a class 4 felony.

• Maricopa County is the only place in the country where victims of human smuggling are treated as criminals.

• The law has drawn the attention of national human rights groups like the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law on the grounds that the statute is preempted by the federal government's constitutional right to regulate immigration.

• A crackdown by Arpaio's deputies on law-abiding immigrants — including food vendors, college students, and day laborers — has left the community so frightened that many immigrants will not even leave their homes to visit the grocery store or go to church. Even American citizens of Hispanic descent say they are nervous. One citizen New Times spoke with carries his United States passport around to prove he's a citizen.

• A push toward making local law enforcement into immigration officers has had a chilling effect on the undocumented population. In February, 160 county deputies were granted immigration authority. Recently, Phoenix and Mesa have considered allowing police officers to question immigration status (previously, they had to call ICE to verify status). Though Arpaio has arrested only about 1,300 illegal immigrants — a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated 300,000 living in Maricopa County — the effort has been felt throughout the undocumented population.

• An increase in immigrant-on-immigrant violence has come, experts say, as a result of the population's inability to call the police in time of need. The fear within the immigrant community of all police has given violent criminals the upper hand — they know their victims can't, or won't, call for help.

Because of the sheriff's reputation for retaliation, all undocumented immigrants New Times interviewed for this story chose to use only their real first names in order to avoid capture and possible deportation. Some even refused to meet with a reporter in person out of fear of being turned over to the police.

Both Arpaio and Thomas' offices declined interview requests for this story. Phoenix lawyer Daniel Ortega, legal counsel to Somos America, says county policies have dangerous ramifications.

"It is our position that Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas are doing exactly what the Constitution of the United States prohibits, and that is the enforcement of immigration laws at a local level," Ortega says. "Why? Because they want to get re-elected. They don't even have to tell the truth. It doesn't matter as long as it gets a headline."


The issue is not unique to Maricopa County. Nationally, the topic has become such a political onus that in October Mexican President Philipe Calderón issued a statement begging American politicians to stop using migrants as the "thematic hostages of their speeches and strategies."

This past summer, a national attempt at comprehensive immigration reform, which included a guest-worker program and amnesty provisions for illegal immigrants already here, along with provisions for beefed up border security and sanctions for employers who hire illegal immigrants, failed to pass Congress.

Without a national solution, states have been left to cope with the problem themselves. At least 18 states have punitive laws that deal with illegal immigration. Following Thomas' lead in Arizona, states including Colorado, Nebraska, and Idaho are considering legislation that would deny bail to undocumented immigrants, and Oklahoma already has such a law in place. In January, Virginia's House of Delegates passed a law that denies state funding to charitable organizations if the money is used to help illegal immigrants.

Under Thomas' direction, Arizona is leading the way. Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and internationally recognized expert on immigration, says Arizona is a leader on the issue. But that doesn't mean she agrees with what the state is doing.

"I would say, for better or worse, Arizona has led the way on state immigration measures," she says. "I would call them Draconian state measures."

By the way, Jacoby is no fuzzy liberal. She's long been known as a rational conservative voice on the issue, working behind the scenes with policymakers in Washington, D.C. She did not want to comment directly on Thomas' policies, but she did say the trend toward state-sponsored immigration legislation is dangerous. Jacoby says the problem needs to be handled by the one entity constitutionally equipped to handle the problem: the federal government. She blames federal immigration quotas that don't correspond to actual national labor needs.

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