Arpaio, recorder candidate speak at tea party meeting

At Thursday’s Maricopa Tea Party meeting, Sheriff Joe Arpaio spoke about topics like the border issues and his endorsement of Sen. Steve Smith, who was in attendance.

Smith is running for his second term in the Arizona Senate.

The controversial sheriff of Maricopa County was a guest speaker at the organization’s monthly meeting. Arpaio used his sense of humor to engage the crowd of about 50 people. He mentioned his meeting with presidential candidate Herman Cain a couple of weeks ago and joked about the sexual harassment allegations against Cain when he worked for the National Restaurant Association.

“He didn’t ask me to go in any apartment or anything,” Arpaio said.

Arpaio said all the presidential candidates have called to speak with him, but none of them have asked about immigration. “They just want my endorsement,” Arpaio said. “Why didn’t they ask?”

Arpaio said he doesn’t understand why anyone, including the President, doesn’t ask his opinion about what to do with the border problem.

Then he answered his own question: “They don’t want to hear my answer.”

He said in order to make an impact on the border problems like drug smuggling, the country needs to get away from just relying on intelligence and becoming more operational like working undercover.

Arpaio said the U.S. should send Border Patrol agents across the border, not to invade but work bilaterally with the Mexican government to stop the drug problems plaguing both countries.

“But they’re going to say it’s too dangerous for the Border Patrol,” Arpaio said. “OK, let’s send the military. Let’s send them over there to work with their military and we’ll clean up this mess.”

But the federal government will never allow a solution like that to happen, he said. “The Presidents will never agree to that.”

Although Arpaio supported SB 1070, a bill to allow arresting illegal immigrants that received heavy resistance from the federal government, he said the state passed two more laws that he has been enforcing. One is the employer sanction law which has prompted MCSO to raid businesses to find and apprehend illegal immigrants.

“I am doing OK without this 1070,” Arpaio said. “I raided McDonalds. I raided Sizzlers Steakhouse, Chang (P.F. Chang’s), Pei Wei, Spaghetti House. I can’t go anywhere to eat.”

He countered the argument that he is splitting up families when he arrests illegal immigrants who are just trying to work and make a living.

“The majority of people we arrest have fake IDs. Nobody talks about the phony IDs,” Arpaio said. “So we lock them up.”

Audience member Thora Jaeger said she agreed with Arpaio’s views on illegal immigration.

“I liked what he had to say about how they are all against him, but I agree with him,” Jaeger said. “What he is doing isn’t popular.”

Arpaio told the audience that as tea party members they can be powerful to sway this country the right way.

“Two years ago you really rocked the boat through talk shows and all these politicians started realizing there’s tea around,” Arpaio said. “They avoided you until they knew you were important.”

“You are all patriots. You are my type of people because you’re the people, you’re the real people in this country,” Arpaio said.

Arpaio mentioned the 45,000 troops that are coming home from Iraq and that he is putting military veterans at the top of the list for 170 officer openings he has.

“They’re going to get the jobs first,” Arpaio said.

The crowd response to Arpaio’s speech was generally positive.

“I liked it because I like Joe. I like what he is doing. I think he is on the right track to try and enforce the law,” said Maricopa resident Jerry Shackelford. “I appreciate that he doesn’t back down from anybody.”

After Arpaio finished speaking, Smith said a few words about the progress of his campaign to build a border fence through private donations. Smith said the world’s largest fence company is going to donate the first mile of fence.

“We at least have one mile of fencing that everyone said wouldn’t get up for less than $5 million and we’re probably going to get it up for zero,” Smith said. "We have construction companies here willing to put it in and, of course, we have plenty of helpers in terms of inmates.”

Arpaio commented on Smith’s reelection campaign.