Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio launched his 55th illegal-immigrant roundup under the guise of an "employer sanctions operation" this morning. It netted 10 arrests -- and, per usual, none of those arrested were employers, just employees, MCSO spokesman Jeff Sprong tells New Times.
According to the Sheriff's Office, after several weeks of investigation, deputies raided the Prisma Graphic Corporation at 2937 East Broadway Road in Phoenix in search of 17 suspected illegal immigrants.
Only 10 of the suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody this morning.
The MCSO says it received a tip that an employee was fraudulently using the Social Security number of a 14-year-old girl to gain employment at the Phoenix printing company.
Illegal immigration aside, the investigation into the company also revealed that employees were using the company's printing equipment to print Wells Fargo credit-card information, government hunting tags, and fraudulent health-insurance documents.
The MCSO says it also "found indications" that undocumented employees were using the printers to make campaign signs for "an unnamed candidate."
(CORRECTION -- compliments of the MCSO: The sheriff's office later admitted that deputies had only heard about the fraudulent documents and campaign signs. They never actually found any at Prisma Graphic).
"Last month, President Obama mentioned me to a small group of journalists insinuating that he was not happy with my illegal-immigration crackdowns and refused to answer why his administration is still investigating me," the sheriff claimed. "This office will continue to enforce all aspects of federal and state immigration laws throughout the Valley, including Phoenix."
The Sheriff's Office declined to say whether it would consider changing the name of these "employer sanctions operations" -- ya know, considering not a single employer has ever been arrested during any of Arpaio's raids.
