Arpaio is so tough...

Body-shop raided in Arpaio crime sweep

by Sandra Haros/KTAR (November 17th, 2009 @ 10:15am)

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County sheriff's deputies served a search warrant Tuesday at Airport Enterprises Inc. in Phoenix as part of a two-day crime suppression sweep aimed at human smuggling.

The Sheriff's Office said deputies had received information that people working at the business were engaged in identity theft and might be in the country illegally.

It said the company was under investigation for violations of the state's employer sanctions law aimed at employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Airport Enterprisesis an auto-body collision repair business near Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

Tuesday's raid came as deputies continued their 13th immigration and crime sweep.

"We're going to do what we can to see if we can spot anyone coming from the border through the county, violating the immigration laws and any other crime," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said as he launched the operation Monday evening.

"I want the word to get out that we're out there and, if you're in this country illegally, maybe you ought to get a bus ticket and go back where you came from and get out of this county," Arpaio added.

Two-hundred deputies and posse members were involved, along with helicopters.


Past sheriff's sweeps in some heavily Latino areas of metro Phoenix have resulted in claims of racial profiling, which Arpaio has denied.

Arpaio said people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that it was only afterward that deputies found many of them were illegal immigrants.

The sheriff's office recently lost its power to make federal immigration arrests, but continues to focus on illegal immigration by enforcing a state immigrant smuggling law.

The sheriff's office reported that 27 arrests were made Monday night. Eighteen of those people were suspected of being illegal immigrants.

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Thanks to Matt for forwarding this from the phoenix immigrant rights list-serve. My neighborhood (16st/McDowell) was under seige by helicopters, cop cars, and dogs last night - I kind of wondered if this didn't have something to do with it.