The MCSO (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office) has hired 93 legal immigrants with green cards from 33 different countries. The list of countries includes Romania, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Serbia, and Japan, among others. One of those employees, Officer Petia Strashilova, has finally reached her long time goal of becoming a Naturalized Citizen.
Officer Strashilova has been working for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office as a Detention Officer since 2003.
Officer Strashilova came to the United States from the country of Bulgaria in the year 2000 for a track meet and was recruited to compete for the United States. She is a former Olympian for the country of Bulgaria and competed in the 1992 games in Barcelona, Spain and the 1996 games in Atlanta, Georgia. Officer Strashilova has also competed in the Police Olympic Games where she won 10 gold medals for the MCSO.
Officer Strashilova has been assigned to the MSCO Special Response Team since 2006 where she has excelled. She is well respected among fellow MCSO Detention Officers and has been “a force to be reckoned with” according to inmates. Officer Strashilova has been working on her citizenship for 5 years and it will finally be made a reality.”
Sheriff Arpaio says “it has long been his goal to help employ people of all nationalities and in so doing create a diverse workforce.” Nearly 3500 employees work for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and of those, 34 percent are classified as minorities.
The ceremony will be held at today 401 West Washington (Federal Court House) Street in Phoenix at 9:00am.