The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's Human Smuggling Unit nabbed seven illegal immigrants during a traffic stop last night -- which is precisely six more immigrants than were arrested during Sheriff Joe Arpaio's latest illegal immigrant roundup.
That's right, during Wednesday's highly publicized immigrant roundup at a hotel in downtown Phoenix, Arpaio's boys in beige busted precisely one suspected illegal immigrant. It's unclear how many deputies were used during the raid, but at least this time the sheriff didn't roll out his tank to arrest one dude.
MCSO Lieutenant Justin Griffin tells New Times the seven
suspected illegal immigrants in last night's bust were arrested following a traffic stop by
the MCSO's HSU. The seven suspects were stopped in a Kia van that was
heading out of the Valley, Griffin says.
Griffin says he isn't
sure what led to the traffic stop -- whether it was just routine, or if
the van had been targeted by deputies. The fact that the HSU was involved suggests
that deputies were looking for illegal immigrants on the roadways,
possibly by looking for cars riding low to the ground, a common MCSO
practice explained by Deputy Lindsey Smith during an episode of the
MCSO's babe-cop reality TV show, Police Women of Maricopa County.
Whatever
it was that led to the traffic stop, it apparently is more effective
than raiding Valley businesses in search of housekeepers and short-order
cooks, as evident from Wednesday's flop of an "Employer Sanctions
Operation"/publicity stunt.
About the failed raid, Scottsdale Lieutenant Mike Stauffer, who is hoping to unseat Arpaio as the GOP nominee for sheriff, told New Times earlier this week
that "the sheriff once again displayed his inept, attention-seeking,
ineffective brand of what he thinks is law enforcement [during the
raid]. He crowed that the investigation took only two months and yet he
had no
idea that worker schedules had been changed and was able to arrest only
one person. I am also not surprised that the employers were not
sanctioned."
Arpaio, meanwhile, is planning another of his "crime
suppression operations" for the northeast Valley for sometime "in the
near future."
