"The Hispanic descent of his passengers, the pungent body odor, and the lack of luggage for traveling also contributed to my suspicions," the deputy wrote. It turned out that the unrelated passengers were all from the same small town in Mexico and were, indeed, being smuggled.
Since Arpaio persuaded Julie Myers, the national ICE boss, to sign the 287(g) agreement with him, the sheriff has used his 100 ICE-trained deputies to hunt down illegals as though he were on a mission from God. Once ICE-certified, the deputies have even more authority than ICE agents, who lack the power to stop drivers for state traffic violations.
Ray Stern
Undocumented day laborers in Chandler.
Michael Ratcliff
Lieutenant Ramon Figueroa of the Arizona Department of Safety.
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Deputies have combed the remote desert areas of the county and staked out highways frequented by smugglers. Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas have teamed up to arrest and charge immigrants for smuggling themselves into the country, something no other agencies in the country have ever done.
To civil rights advocates, the most egregious actions have been the anti-immigrant sweeps in Hispanic neighborhoods. Demonstrations against Arpaio began in earnest after deputies started rounding up tamale vendors and drivers of vehicles with broken tail lights.
But on one occasion last year, deputies saved the life of an immigrant who was being held captive and beaten by smugglers demanding $2,100. After being approached in a Food City parking lot about the situation by a man who claimed to be the victim's brother, deputies did a money-for-hostage trade, rescued the victim, and arrested the two kidnappers.
Arpaio's tactics have netted smugglers, illegal immigrants wanted on warrants, and previously deported felons. And they have brought complaints of racial profiling. The Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has a pending lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office that details alleged abuses.
"Everyone knows" the sheriff is profiling, claims Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona. "He's pulling people over for minor traffic violations and applying policy in a discriminatory manner."
Arpaio's chief of enforcement, Brian Sands, was quoted in a May 8 Arizona Republic article as saying that deputies found numerous illegal immigrants in Fountain Hills simply by scrutinizing older cars and work trucks for problems like cracked windshields.
Yet it is just this sort of targeted approach that Meetze predicts will result in "costly mistakes" for the county. In two cases detailed in the ACLU lawsuit, Hispanic drivers and passengers appear to have been singled out by overly aggressive deputies trying to find illegal immigrants.
Though a judge may yet find Arpaio's methods to be within the letter of the law, some of the deputies' actions seem questionable.
A July article in the East Valley Tribune described one apparently bogus traffic stop. Deputy Jesus Cosme, with reporter Ryan Gabrielson riding along, pulled over a van full of suspected illegals near Wickenburg for failing to use a turn signal. Gabrielson wrote in the article that the van had never changed lanes.
A report reviewed by New Times shows that deputies targeting day laborers in Fountain Hills last October found reasons to pull over vehicles only after they were identified as carrying potential illegal immigrants. Undercover detectives observed their prey hopping into vehicles to be driven to work sites and "once the pickup vehicle was located by MCSO marked patrol units, detectives would establish probable cause for a traffic stop," the report states.
Yet another case of possible fudging was smoothed over by Arpaio's partners at the County Attorney's Office. In April, a deputy pulled over a vehicle that appeared to be displaying a fictitious license plate and arrested a group of illegal immigrants. But it turned out the plate was good — the deputy had simply misread it.
Prosecutors told the Sheriff's Office that the probable cause for the stop was "still valid" and the people being smuggled should still be charged.
No wonder immigrants are scared.
West of the IIMPACT offices on Encanto, a new holding facility is under construction for illegal immigrants detained by the team. It will have four small, white cells, a long booking area, and video cameras to monitor all the action. When finished and opened in early 2009, it will be an extension of ICE's detention facility.
Men, women, and children who are caught at area drop houses or are being smuggled on nearby highways will be brought here and questioned. The smugglers facing criminal charges will be separated from the pollitos, who will be quickly turned over to ICE and deported. Officials said the facility is designed to process 100 to 200 people a month.
Despite IIMPACT's goals, it is clear the team is prepared to deal with plenty of illegal immigrants who are not violent criminals.
The 10 percent or so of illegal immigrants who live in the state "need to understand it's not only DPS, but other agencies taking an aggressive enforcement stance," says Smart, IIMPACT's leader.
It is likely that immigrants do understand that by now.
But they are still taking the risk.
