Picard explained that the matter had been turned over to ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility for investigation, so he would not comment on the details of the case.
This avian just wishes ICE had considered "humanitarian concerns" when it granted federal authority to an organization with a history of human rights abuses.
Stephen Lemons
Maria del Carmen Garcia-Martinez, shortly after her release from ICE custody. MCSO officers broke her arm.
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BLAME GAME
The MCSO's notorious for abusing inmates and violating their civil rights. There have been cases of broken arms and necks, like the arm of Eric Johnson, which was snapped by MCSO oafs in 1994 after he demanded a sandwich. Or there's the neck of paraplegic Richard Post, which was broken in 1996 after MCSO guards strapped him into a medieval restraint chair because he asked for a catheter.
As for the list of those who've died in Joe's jails because of MCSO abuse and negligence, that would take a doorstop of a book to do them justice. You may be familiar with some of the names: Scott Norberg, Charles Agster, Phillip Wilson, Deborah Brailllard (see New Times' special "Investigating Sheriff Joe Arpaio" page). More recently, there have been the jailhouse slayings of Robert Cotton, murdered May 1, 2008, by a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and Juan Mendoza Farias, beaten to death December 2, 2007, likely by Arpaio's guards, while in stir on a DUI-related probation violation.
It wouldn't have taken the feds long to research this information in New Times' archives, or to find out that Arpaio's jails had been condemned by Amnesty International. Furthermore, they must have known that Arpaio's the sadistic P.T. Barnum of law enforcement, and that he's proud of the punishments meted out by his gendarmes.
So although ICE earns a point for doing what's right in the case of Garcia-Martinez, that mother's broken arm offers painful testimony that Arpaio should never have been given 287(g) authority to begin with, and that it now should be jerked away — not only from Arpaio's 287(g) force of 160 federally deputized law dogs who are active in the sweeps but from the 287(g) officers who work the jails.
That broken arm also lends validity to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that the Justice Department is investigating Arpaio's civil rights abuses, and to the declared intention of House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers to hold hearings on the county's corrupt top cop. These developments have Arpaio defenders, such as Republic columnist E.J. Montini, Congressman Trent Franks, and CNN's nativist blowhard Lou Dobbs pitching fits, insisting, as Montini did in a recent column, that Arpaio's the "victim" of a liberal "witch hunt."
If Montini, et al. want a real victim, they should take a look at Garcia-Martinez's case, or that of Ciria Lopez-Pacheco, the Mexican mom who was torn from her crying children in January by MCSO deputies in black ski masks. Or they could read about the harassment endured by the family of Guadalupe resident Elaine Sanchez in our cover story this week, "Are Your Papers in Order?" by Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey.
Arpaio's 287(g) status is in real danger, but The Bird has heard through various back-channels that Department of Homeland Security honcho Janet Napolitano, who oversees ICE, wants to strip Arpaio of his 287(g) force in the field, while keeping an ICE presence in the jails.
See, ICE's dirty little secret is that it gave Joe his army of 287(g) men to get that jail access. It's to the jails that all of Maricopa County's law enforcement agencies take their arrestees. And those who're suspected of committing felonies will be asked about their nationality. If they're believed to be illegal, they can be questioned by a 287(g) officer, an ICE hold can be placed on them, and they can be pressured to sign voluntary-removal paperwork to their home country. If they don't sign, they can be transferred to ICE custody and cool their heels waiting to see an immigration judge.
More illegal immigrants are processed this way than via Arpaio's sweeps, which generally do not produce a large number of arrests. For instance, it was the Phoenix Police Department that collared Garcia-Martinez. According to the arrest report, Garcia-Martinez was contacted by Phoenix cop Karen Anderson at Garcia-Martinez's house because the woman had hung signs nearby advertising a yard sale.
Anderson, who was working a sign-abatement detail, wanted to give Garcia-Martinez a warning, and asked for her ID. All Garcia-Martinez had was an old California ID. (The family has been in the United States for 19 years, the past three in Arizona.) Anderson believed the card was fictitious, eventually called for backup, and got the opinion of an officer supposedly trained in forgeries. Garcia-Martinez was arrested and booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail.
Garcia-Martinez and her new attorney, Danny Ortega, insist the California ID was valid, though expired, as was a matrícula consular card, obtained at the Mexican Consulate, that she presented to the Phoenix PD. Their assertion is supported, in part, by the fact that the charges against her were dropped.
"If she hadn't presented the forged instrument, she probably would have gotten away with a warning," stated PHX PD spokesman Andy Hill. Asked about why the charges were dropped if the ID was fictitious, Hill said the officer had probable cause and that it was up to the County Attorney's Office as to whether to proceed with charges.
