GOP sheriff backtracks after suggesting he’d arrest ICE agents

Last week, in a radio interview with KTAR, Republican Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan talked a big game about standing up to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should ICE decide to crack down on the Valley. With federal agents wreaking havoc in Minneapolis — resulting in the shooting death of Renee Good — Sheridan suggested he would arrest any ICE agents in Arizona who were acting illegally.

Four days later, he changed his tune to say he’d arrest not ICE agents but anyone deemed to be interfering with them.

Sheridan’s original comments came on Jan. 14 in an interview on KTAR’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos. During the spot, Sheridan told listeners that if ICE agents are “doing something that is illegal (or) unlawful, the sheriff will be there.” Reports have suggested that the Trump administration will target Phoenix next for a surge of immigration enforcement. Sheridan noted that he’s jailed deputies, including his nephew, for illegal conduct before. He added that law enforcement officers must “police ourselves very well.” 

However, it appears Sheridan’s comments may not have sat well with his MAGA and conservative base. Just four days later, on Saturday, Sheridan threw on his cowboy hat and spoke directly to the camera in an Instagram video to stand up for ICE.

“When ICE is here doing their job, and their responsibility, I will be there to protect them to do that and keep people from interfering with them,” Sheridan said. “Anyone will be arrested if they interfere with federal officers doing their duty.” 

Sheridan added that his office works with ICE through its jail system, noting that there are two ICE officers in the Maricopa County jails who check detainees’ immigration information. He also reiterated his status as a “constitutional sheriff,” a movement that holds that sheriffs derive their power directly from the Constitution and that county sheriffs should be the ultimate law enforcement authority in the U.S., according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

“There should be no question that your sheriff, a Constitutional Sheriff, will enforce the law when necessary and not tolerate any violations of the law,” Sheridan said in the video. 

Phoenix New Times sent questions to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office about Sheridan’s comments, including what he would consider to be “interfering” with ICE activity. New Times also asked whether ICE informs his office before it conducts operations in the county. The sheriff’s office has not responded.

Flip-flop

In the absence of an explanation, Sheridan’s flip-flop has raised more than a few eyebrows. Longtime immigration activist Sal Reza, who’s known Sheridan since he was the right-hand man to infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio, criticized Sheridan for wanting to “have his cake and eat it too.”

“On one hand, he wants to appear like he’s friendly to us,” Reza told New Times. “But on the other hand, he doesn’t want to lose his base.”

When Sheridan initially talked tough about policing ICE last week, immigration activists were skeptical. “Nothing that he had done to this point has suggested that he would be open to holding ICE accountable when they overstep boundaries,” said Ricardo Reyes, an organizer with progressive veterans group Common Defense. Many predicted he’d backtrack.

“A lot of (activists) were like, ‘Hey, let’s give him a minute,” Reyes said. “He’ll probably walk it back.”

That’s just what Sheridan did. 

“That’s the Jerry Sheridan we know,” Reyes quipped about his reaction to Sheridan’s reversal. Added Reza: “It’s typical Sheridan. He’s always been two-faced.” 

To Reza, Sheridan is trying to balance a tricky political game: reassuring the Latino community he’s changed while playing to his base’s support of ICE. Reza noted that Sheridan has been cozying up with the Mexican Consulate and cutting cake with Felix Garcia, a member of the Community Advisory Board created as a result of a federal judge’s ruling in a more than decade-old racial profiling lawsuit against the sheriff’s office.

“It’s all window dressing. It’s all for the benefit of the public and also for the benefit of the judge,” Reza said. “A political game is being played and he made a boo-boo to his base.” 

Immigration advocate Alberto Rivera, who’s been active at the mandated quarterly meetings the sheriff’s office has with community members as a result of that lawsuit, called Sheridan a “masterful liar” and said his stand-up-to-ICE talk was “an act for him.” 

Advocates are worried Sheridan would jump to have a cozier relationship with ICE. Indeed, New Times previously reported that he told ICE officials that he would coordinate with them more if not for an ongoing federal court ruling. The county sheriff’s office has not signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE, which deputizes some local law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law, largely because of that court ruling.

“The major concern is that as soon as he has nobody overlooking him … then he will immediately turn around and either sign the 287(g) or just have a relationship with ICE,” Reyes said.