It’s been a busy two days for Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) deputies, as they captured 19 illegal aliens being smuggled into the U.S. from Guatemala and Mexico, in 3 different sweeps. And as in over 80% of such cases involving Arpaio’s department, all of the illegals were headed for states other than Arizona.
MCSO Human Smuggling Unit detectives arrested eight illegals and booked them into the 4th Avenue Jail on state human smuggling charges. During interviews with detectives, members of the group admitted to paying between $1,000 and $3,000 to be smuggled into the U.S. They were headed to Florida, North and South Carolina, officials said.
Two more illegal aliens were also arrested by deputies after a traffic stop. Another group was detained and nine were arrested and booked into jail for violating human smuggling laws, officials say. Among the suspects was a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor who was one of two turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, according to MCSO.
And these 19 do not include the 6 illegals arrested just one day earlier near Gila Bend, with seizures of 50 pounds of methamphetamine, worth $1.5 million dollars and 236 pounds of marijuana during two separate investigations.
MCSO deputy checking an arrested coyote for weapons during a human smuggling sweep in Gila Bend, AZ.
After the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the central provision of Arizona’s S.B. 1070 crackdown on illegal aliens, and angry Obama directed his DHS to terminate all 287(g) coordination between ICE and the state of Arizona. Despite that edict, ICE agents actualy cooperated with Sheriff Joe on two of his recent arrests. Is this a result of recent reports that many ICE agents were angered by Obama’s lawless efforts to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens? If so, one can only hope it spreads in the rank and file.
In the meantime, Sheriff Joe is refusing to let Obama stop him from enforcing state smuggling laws to prevent illegal aliens from entering the United States:
“I’m not stopping anything. I’m going to continue to enforce those state laws regardless of what the federal government is trying to put pressure on me to satisfy all these activists,….I’m not going to bend to the federal government, especially when we still have state laws to enforce.”
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies continue to enforce the law every single day, to remove illegal aliens from Arizona streets. And since most of them are headed to states other than Arizona, Joe is also keeping them off a street near you.
Way to go, Joe!
Is Barack Obama using his office to destroy America?
One only wonders