Friday, August 14, 2009

ANOTHER RAID!

On Thursday, August 13, 2009 the Sheriff's office of Maricopa County, Arizona raided the Royal Paper Converting company. In the raid 44 people were arrested. The sheriff booked 35 of the people on state felony identification theft. This was the second time this company was raided in the past year. In the first raid 8 people were arrested. The sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, is not a stranger to making these raids or arresting migrants. Sheriff Arpaio is known for bending the law in order to arrest migrants. For example, the sheriff has used a smuggling charge on migrants to arrest them-stating that they smuggle themselves! The sheriff has also given prisoners, mostly migrants, pink underwear to wear while incarcerated. Another one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's action was feeding the inmates bologna sandwiches, in which the bologna was green! Most all of his actions are targeting migrants. He recently stated, "If we come across any illegal aliens during the course of this operation they'll be arrested and put in jail." Comments like this one have been common in interviews and public rallies. "We don't train the officers to speak Spanish to talk to them. They're in the United States of America so they're gonna learn English." While the sheriff has made these types of comments, he wasn't always so anti-immigration. Michael Lacey, the editor of the Phoenix New Times, Lacey stated about Arpaio, "he's got a very famous quote about how he wasn't gonna be busting corn vendors or Mexicanson the street looking for work. That there were real criminals out there." I wonder what made the sheriff change his view on immigration?