Here in Arizona, illegal immigration is a real problem. Fortunately, we have a Sheriff who has the guts to tackle the problem.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has banned illegal immigrants from visiting people in his jails.
Arpaio said the ban was another part of his plan to crack down on illegal immigration in the biggest urban center in Arizona, the nation’s busiest illegal entry point.
Arpaio, known for making inmates wear pink underwear and take part in old-style chain gangs, said illegal immigrants shouldn’t be allowed to visit people in jail because the border-crossers themselves have committed a crime by sneaking into the country.
“How can I let a criminal go into the jail to visit criminals?” Arpaio asked.
The ban wasn’t prompted by specific abuses by immigrants who visited people in the jails, said Arpaio, who is vowing to arrest any jail visitors found to be in the country illegally.
The new policy, which takes effect in 10 days, drew criticism from immigrant rights advocates who said Arpaio was treating immigrants inhumanely. [source]
Nothing pisses off criminals more than a sheriff who enforces the law.
Elias Bermudez, chief executive of Immigrants Without Borders, said the families of illegal immigrants in Arpaio’s jail ought to be able to visit their incarcerated relatives.
The illegal immigrants should be able to visit relatives in jail. And because they are also criminals, they should join their relatives in jail.
Sheriff Arpaio has also had 120 of his deputies specially trained in enforcing federal immigration law, and set up a hotline for people to report illegal immigrants – also known as “criminals”. Of course, the criminal sympathizers countered with a hotline to let people report alleged racial profiling.
My guess is that there is a lot of racial profiling going on when trying to identify illegal immigrants along the Mexican Border. If we had a huge problem with illegal immigrants coming from Sweden, I hope we’d be paying close attention to tall blond people with funny accents. It just makes sense.
Joe Arpaio says he’s not going to let the criminal enablers keep him from enforcing the law, and I say good for him. If a known drug dealer wants to visit his friend at the county jail, he’s likely to get arrested. Why should illegal immigrants be treated any different?
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