One of the most reviled figures in open borders demonology is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Notwithstanding the unremitting abuse heaped upon Governor Jan Brewer and State Senate President Russell Pearce since the enactment of SB 1070, Sheriff Joe is the #1 target of a faction within the left that disparages anyone who tries to enforce immigration laws, no matter how modest the effort.
So it should come as no surprise that Sheriff Arpaio’s most vocal critics have yet again taken to the media to denounce him in the wake of his arrest of three deputies accused of participating in an immigrant smuggling ring.
The same individuals who would normally praise an internal affairs bureau within the police department that rooted out systemic corruption are using this incident as yet another invitation for moral preening and unsubstantiated inferences about Mr. Apaio’s alleged incompetence and/or malfeasance in office. And even though I hasten to add that some of the charges against him might very well be valid, it strikes me as odd that almost all of the most potent allegations are framed within the context of Sheriff Arpaio’s consistent advocacy for stricter immigration enforcement. In fact, one of the chief counts against Maricopa County’s chief law enforcement officer, in the eyes of his critics at least, is that he has “diverted” millions of dollars that were intended for regular police work to crime suppression and immigration sweeps. Remarkably, this hasn’t prevented Maricopa’s crime rate from declining precipitously, despite its proximity to a country that is being convulsed by drug-related, gang-fueled violence.
Another accusation regularly leveled against the sheriff is that he spends an inordinate amount of his office’s time consumed with media and public relations. In essence, he stands accused of doing the unthinkable, i.e. responding to the perpetual campaign of demonization by his open borders detractors, e.g. MALDEF, the ACLU, and the Democratic Party, among many others. So promoting his county’s record of law enforcement-which would be a matter of routine for any other police department in the country-is a cardinal sin when done by someone who has become the de facto hate figure for those who want to do away with America’s system of immigration controls and border security.
To summarize, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is guilty of enforcing criminal laws-even if those found violating them are within his own police department-responding to accusations leveled against him both professionally and personally-many of them spurious in nature-and refusing to kiss the rings of people whose ultimate political goal is the dissolution of this country through erasure of its borders. I’m sure that for the open borders left these are capital offenses, however most Americans-including the voters who have overwhelming reelected Sheriff Joe in election after election-believe them to be the byproduct of a public official doing his job.
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