Living in Maricopa County, Arizona, we are used to seeing our Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, in the headlines, even national ones. Staying in the public purview seems to be a large part of his perceived duties as our county’s top law enforcement official. From the pink underwear for male inmates to the female chain gangs and Tent City, or the arrests of critical newspaper owners and the parading of immigrant detainees in front of media cameras, not forgetting the ‘training’ trips to Honduras for sheriff deputies or the all-volunteer ‘posse’ and the multiple investigations of civil rights abuses, racial profiling and now even money laundering … It makes great news; the question for Maricopa County has been: Does it make for great law enforcement?
The federal government has effectively said, no.
The Department of Homeland Security has taken away one of the sheriff’s biggest media enticement tools — his ability to “enforce” federal immigration laws.
Sheriff Arpaio has received lots of media coverage by his use (some might say, abuse) of the contractual agreement between the sheriff’s department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to credential immigration ‘sweeps’ all over our county. The ICE program, known as 287(g), was designed to go after violent criminals, who also happen to be immigrants, and is often most effective inside jails. Sheriff Arpaio instead used this federal program to grab headlines.
The sheriff’s department arrested day laborers and stopped drivers for broken taillights, cracked windshields, and insufficiently lit license plates. He raided the City Hall in Mesa in the middle of the night using deputies in swat gear looking for suspected undocumented janitorial workers. He orchestrated and implemented sting operations on … corn vendors. All of his time, energy, resources and rhetoric have resulted in the arrest of fewer than 300 “illegals.”
The Arpaio narrative could be relegated to the land of the ridiculous, if it weren’t so sad. The truth is, for us at Neighborhood Ministries, where we don’t ask for people’s documents when they come to hear about Jesus, families are really afraid of this guy. They send text messages full of fear to warn others about certain intersections or to avoid going to a particular store for groceries or even to keep the kids home from school because Arpaio is on the loose.
The other sad piece of this story rarely gets told: immigrants are not dangerous! This is an American myth told over and over again when immigration levels are higher than in previous generations. It also has never been true. A recent study by the Immigration Policy Center
shows immigrants are less likely than native-born citizens to commit a crime or to be incarcerated, and high levels of immigration in a community are associated with lower crime rates.
The tragedy of our sheriff is about the lack of oversight, the media-driven law enforcement, the mismanaged budgets, and the misuse of scarce resources. But I think what’s worse is the daily rhythm of fear he has contributed to and fostered in Maricopa County. Immigrants are afraid for their lives and the rest of us are made to fear the immigrant.
Ian Danley is a youth pastor with Neighborhood Ministries in Phoenix, Arizona.
