The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office reports that a tip came into the illegal immigration hotline which led to the execution of a search warrant on Lam’s Asian and International Supermarket in Maryvale. According to Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio, a former employee of the grocer provided information that led to search.
The store, located at 6740 West Indian School Road employs about 27 workers, 21 of whom are suspected of using fake IDs to secure employment.
The Criminal Employment Squad operation used more Sheriff’s deputies than usual, Arpaio says, because of the proliferation of radio communication devices used by employees to communicate with each other in the supermarket.
“We figured it would be very likely that employees would warn others to flee the premises using that radio system, so we manned the entrance and exit doors with several deputies to prevent anyone from bolting,” Operations Chief David Trombi says.
The search warrant was executed at around 1:00 p.m. as Sheriff’s deputies determined that was the time of day where more employees were inside the store than customers.
This was the 70th criminal employment operation undertaken by Sheriff Arpaio’s office since 2008. These operations have resulted in the arrests of 684 suspects, all of whom were later determined to be in the U.S. illegally. Of those, 499 were charged with I.D. theft, a serious felony offense.
“Until the laws are changed, my deputies will continue to enforce state and federal immigration laws,” Arpaio says.
But Arpaio is interested in real immigration reform, not just rhetoric. And while he does not agree with all the ideas announced today by the Black/Brown Coalition of Arizona in published reports, he does see that some common ground exists.
“I do think a guest worker program is long overdue in this country,” Arpaio says. “And the Coalition members are right in asking that the federal government streamline the visa process and offer more visas to people wanting to live and work in our country.
“But I draw the line with the Arizona coalition group when they say that local police agencies should be stopped from enforcing federal immigration laws. Enforcement needs to be a collaborative effort. And I cannot agree with their position that the government create a program which allows for eventual citizenship to illegal aliens. That’s too close to amnesty and I oppose it.” Arpaio says.
Arpaio is also interested in examining Obama’s immigration reform policies which the President says he plans to announce shortly after his inauguration.
“Hopefully Obama will focus on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants as doing so takes away jobs from American citizens but certainly there has been no apparent effort in Arizona or around the country so far which focuses on employers by the Obama administration.”