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Immigration debate heats up at Maricopa County meeting The Valley's immigration debate intensified at Wednesday's Maricopa County Board of Supervisor's meeting. Several members of an activist group, Maricopa County Citizens for Safety and Accountability, were at the meeting to voice their frustrations with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office fight against undocumented immigration. Activists used time set aside for public comments to admonish Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his crime suppression sweeps as they did at board meetings in June and July. Randy Parraz, a co-founder of the group, cited a six-month investigation by the East Valley Tribune published in July. The Tribune's report found that MCSO's response times to regular law enforcement work had slowed down and arrests had declined during the undocumented immigration enforcement operations during the past two years. "Citizens are standing up and saying we have issues with these response times," said Parraz. "We have issues with these uninvestigated sex crimes. Women are being raped, teenagers have been raped and nothing happened." Parraz also said the county officials need to apologize to people who have been arrested on suspicion of being undocumented immigrants who were later proven to be U.S. citizens. "What would that cost you to do that publicly, saying we're going to apologize for anyone who's been unjustly detained, who's rights have been violated?" asked Parraz. "What is your threshold for injustice?" Lisa Allen, the Maricopa County Director of Public Relations, made it clear she's not a fan of anti-Arpaio activists. "Open border activists and some elected officials have a primary goal, and that goal is to oust Joe Arpaio from office this November," said Allen. "All attempts of doing so is an affront, not only to the Sheriff but also to the vast majority of Maricopa County citizens who believe Joe Arpaio is upholding all the laws in Arizona." Allen went on to accuse activists and a local newspaper of reporting false accusations regarding the performance of MCSO deputies. "Now, we have had conversations with some of you already to help ease your minds about the drivel and lies being repeated over and over again by these activist and some local print media regarding our illegal immigration operations and the overall police work being done by MCSO," said Allen. Allen ended her speech by saying that opponents of Arpaio are desperate to get Arpaio out of office because "...They know that without Sheriff Arpaio and County Attorney Andy Thomas, this county's fight to reduce illegal immigration would shrivel up and die."
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