Sheriff Joe vs. Mesa

The Sheriff has had a difficult time with the city of Mesa in recent months. The Mesa Police chief publicly declared that Joe (Arpiao- here you say Joe and everyone knows who you are speaking about) would not give him enough notice of his crime suppression sweeps. The Mesa Police chief wanted to make sure that he had adequate officers in the area of the sweeps to keep the public safe, and the inevitable protestors under control.

This morning MCSO showed up at the Mesa public library to enforce the Employer's Sanction Law. Joe received a tip that the City of Mesa's contracted cleaning service, Management Cleaning Controls, was knowingly employing illegal immigrants. This morning 16 people, all illegal immigrants were arrested. 3 of these people were at the Mesa public library, the remaining 13 were arrested at their homes. Additionally, MCSO is charging 10 of these people with identity fraud. According to CBS news this evening there are 200 additional employees of this company under investigation for possible identity fraud. MCSO served a police lieutenant with the Mesa Police as well. his exact charges in regards to this sweep are unknown, although there is sense that he knew these employees were illegal.

Joe is not the only one who has amped up his campaigns in the last couple of days. This week there have been protests outside the meetings of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. A group newly formed in January who call themselves the Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability have drawn hundreds of members and supporters to County Board of supervisor's meetings for the past few months. The meetings attended include those in regards to the MCSO contract as acting law enforcement in the city of Guadalupe.

MCSA was formed by a group from religious and community organizations who focus on the purse strings to effect the policies of Joe Arpiao and MCSO.
"The Board of Supervisors is ultimately where the money comes through for the Sheriff's department. We wanted to have more (of) a public accounting. Other people took the sheriff on a frontal assault on issues and weren't effective." stated Parraz, the group's leader. "Change doesn't happen overnight. We're not going to allow them to continue to bully us, at the same time we're never going to resort to violence, do personal attacks, undermine them as people. It's consistent, it's reaching out, it's involving ordinary people in the process, it's being creative. It's sometimes breaking the rules and at other times cooperating." - -www.azcentral.com -"Arpiao Critics keep heat on supervisors,"- 10-15-2008.