The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday voted to accept $1.6 million from the state to help pay for illegal-immigration enforcement by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The money will supplement the enforcement through an agreement with the state Department of Public Safety.
The vote was controversial because of the sheriff's adversarial relationship with the board, budget fights and investigations.
Also, the program that allows the Sheriff's Office to enforce federal immigration laws, known as 287(g,) is under review by the federal government after a report found the program lacks clear goals about what kinds of criminals should be targeted.
Separately, the U.S. Justice Department launched a civil-rights investigation of the Sheriff's Office after complaints that deputies discriminate in their enforcement of federal immigration laws. Arpaio has said that his deputies do not racially profile.
More than three dozen members of a local advocacy group packed the meeting to persuade the board to refuse the money.
The Republican-majority board accepted the money in a 3-1 vote. Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox voted to reject the funding, and Supervisors Andy Kunasek, Max Wilson and Fulton Brock voted to accept it. Supervisor Don Stapley was absent.
"What kind of message are we sending?" Wilcox asked. "We are releasing a reign of terror in our community."
Kunasek responded by saying there is a reign of terror brought on by human smugglers and drophouses, and that "it's important that those crimes be investigated . . . this money that the legislature has appropriated will go towards helping liberate and help save the people from a life in bondage."
The money will pay for 15 new positions: one lieutenant, two sergeants, and 12 deputies and supporting supplies.
>b?Last year, former Gov. Janet Napolitano stripped Arpaio of the $1.6 million and redirected it to a fugitive task force. Republican legislative leadership gave the money back to Arpaio in a budget package earlier this year.
Poster Comment:
I'm guessing that Janet 'Napolean' Napolitano isn't fondly remembered in AZ??