A billboard displaying a Hispanic family with an out-of-context quote from Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has been removed.
Within days of the billboard going up, Babeu started campaigning to have it removed, even calling the consulate for the president of El Salvador -- the country of origin of the family on the billboard -- to make his plea.
The billboard showed what was interpreted as an innocent, hard working family with the Babeu quote: "This is our most serious public safety issue and a national security threat to America."
The billboard was on the property of Frank Pierson and Mary Ellen Kazda, of Oracle, and Babeu says he had nothing to do with it, nor does he approve it.
Not only isn't the quote accurate, he says, it's incomplete.
The actual quote is: "Those responsible for drug and human smuggling and those entering the U.S. illegally especially from terrorist countries are the most serious public safety threat to America."
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Babeu said last week, "I find this billboard offensive and misleading. This message is not truthful and takes away from the great work our law enforcement members do on a daily basis to protect our Pinal County families," .
The family has replaced the billboard with a far-less controversial image: the Statue of Liberty accompanied with the words "Nation of Immigrants."
