Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office isolates undocumented inmates

By J.D. Long-García | February 19, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

Print and broadcast journalists, including a news helicopter, flocked to see it.

In the span of 15 minutes, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office marched some 200 undocumented immigrants from the Durango Jail complex to a segregated area in the “Tent City” detention center.

According to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Feb. 4 move to the adjacent tent facility helps deal with overcrowding and rising costs.

“It’s easier,” the sheriff said before ordering the transfer. “They’re all up for deportation. As soon as they complete their sentence, they will be deported to the country that they came from.”

While the immigrants walked from the jail, chained at the feet and to each other, some 30 protestors demonstrated outside the facility.

“It was clearly a publicity stunt,” said Chris Fleischman, a parishioner at All Saints Catholic Newman Center. “If it was just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill transfer, he wouldn’t have attracted all of the cameras and all the protestors.”

The new location would be more secure, Arpaio said in a Feb. 3 statement, noting that the immigrants’ new location is surrounded by an electric fence.

“This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape,” the sheriff said. “But this is a fence they won’t want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock — literally.”

The protestors were not amused.

“This was something that was beyond the pale — to publicly humiliate people,” Fleischman said. “It’s just not something you can sit by and let happen without raising your voice.”

Inmates at the county jail wear pink underwear and striped uniforms. Arpaio’s deputies conduct sporadic sweeps for undocumented immigrants, pulling suspects over for minor traffic violations and asking for proof of legal residency.

Jason Odhner, who volunteers with No More Deaths, a humanitarian effort on the U.S.-Mexico border, joined Fleischman at the demonstration. He hoisted a sign that read, “No Human Being is Illegal.”

“I hope that people can learn not to be afraid of their neighbors,” he said. “We need to learn to love each other in Maricopa County and I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox was more aggressive in her comments.

“He’s segregating people. He’s parading them before the media,” she said. “Do you see him doing that to other inmates?”

Arpaio’s efforts to fight illegal immigration will be boosted by a $1.6 million allocation recently approved by the state government. Immigrant rights advocates fear more arrests and sweeps.

“We’re going to demand that these stunts stop,” Wilcox said, adding that the transfer wouldn’t do much for rising costs. “We have to begin to fight back. No longer will we tolerate this.”

Monica Sandschafer, state organizer of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, accused Arpaio of creating a “media circus.”

“We came out here to stand for human dignity for all and to let the detainees know that they had our support,” she said. “For me it is an important moment to stand for human dignity in a time of such blatant disregard for it.”

Jose Robles, director of Hispanic Ministry for the Phoenix Diocese, said he was “disappointed in the public display of these undocumented persons.”

“This will add to the existing immigration rhetoric,” he said, emphasizing that both sides need to engage in civil discourse.

Robles also said local Church leadership recognized that law enforcement agencies have a mandate to uphold the law.

“We remind law enforcement officials that the respect and dignity of every human person is a fundamental teaching of our Catholic faith,” he said. “We ask again that our local law enforcement act in a manner that respects the human person and does not target a specific ethnic group.”

Kevin Appleby, director of immigration and refugee policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, learned of the inmates’ segregation from Washington.

“From a distance, it looks like the sheriff is going beyond the needs of law enforcement,” he said.

“Shackling people and marching them before the public is not in keeping with the values that all Americans share,” Appleby said. “It’s sad that a law enforcement officer would subject people to that kind of treatment simply for publicity.”