With Sheriff Joe Arpaio's promise to bring his immigration and crime sweeps to Mesa, people are planning for anything to happen.

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Schools are figuring out what to do if families are broken up. Hispanics, no matter their citizenship or immigration status, are avoiding public places. And the police, planning for possible chaos, have squads of officers on standby, ready to quell civil unrest should it break out.

Mesa, it seems, has become a city on edge, its people wondering what will happen next.

"Everyone is mortified - alarmed, really," said a Spanish-speaking man in central Mesa. Though he was a legal U.S. resident, he asked that his name not be used for fear he would be targeted in the sweeps.

"They don't know what corner or what place this is going to take place at," he said. "People with kids are especially worried. They don't know if, when they leave for work, they're going to come home."

In dozens of interviews, covering a wide spectrum of the community, many people, from day laborers to city leaders, say they are worried about the sweeps. Tensions are running particularly high in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods where some predict the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office will strike first.

Meanwhile, Arpaio is remaining tight-lipped about the details.

What is clear is that the sweeps will be similar to others his agency has done elsewhere in the Valley. The sheriff calls them "crime suppression operations," in which he floods an area with deputies and posse members, ordering them to investigate every traffic violation, civil offense or crime to determine if the offenders are either wanted for more serious crimes or are in the country illegally.

On Thursday, Arpaio tried to dispel concerns that his sweeps were targeting Hispanics.

"We do not just do street corners," he said. "We do not do people on the color of their skin. We do not do profiling. We're very careful with these operations."

Part of the federal immigration training some of his deputies have gone through included instruction on how to avoid racial profiling, he said.

Arpaio's supporters say he is filling a role city police departments have refused to fill.

His critics say Hispanics have been arrested or ticketed at higher rates than whites, and even U.S.-born citizens of Hispanic descent are routinely questioned about their immigration status.

Critics also fear the sweeps are fueling anti-illegal-immigrant sentiment throughout the Valley.

"It's unsafe for me to go out and unsafe for my children to go out," said community activist Carmen Guerrero, who has lived in Mesa for 30 years and said this is the most volatile period she has ever seen.

Guerrero said her family recently gave overnight refuge to some Westwood High School students whose parents feared driving to the school and being stopped by the police.

Other schools have been affected, too. At Adams Elementary School, some families have been afraid to attend concerts and other school events, said Principal Devon Isherwood.

"They're still coming," Isherwood said. "But the teachers have to assure them, 'It's just us.' "

Mesa Unified School District Superintendent Debra Duvall said school officials have not been told any details about the sweeps but are trying to be "sensitive" to what could occur because they know schools in other parts of the country have been targeted in immigration enforcement.

Assistant Superintendent Mike Cowan said certain community agencies have even agreed to step in to help families if the sweeps target schools.

Arpaio said rumors of his agency targeting schools are "ridiculous." In fact, he said, "I'm going to wait until after the school year," marking the first time Arpaio has indicated when he might do a sweep in Mesa.

The Mesa district's school year ends May 22.

The stories told by Mesa's Hispanic residents in numerous interviews were remarkably similar to one another.

Legal or otherwise, residents said they have changed the patterns of their lives to make themselves less vulnerable to traffic stops and scrutiny.

"We just go to work and then straight home," said a young, Spanish-speaking mother of two who declined to give her name. "We're just afraid to go out."

Outside a grocery store frequented by Hispanics - and particularly immigrants - along Main Street in west Mesa, another man pointed to the parking lot. "Look at how empty it is," he said. "Normally there are more people." He also declined to give his name.

With many of the people interviewed, however, rumors more than facts seemed to be driving the fear.

For example, a community meeting two weeks ago in west Mesa was well-attended by Hispanics and Spanish speakers despite rumors otherwise, said Mesa police spokesman Steve Berry.

"The media has gone nuts on this," Berry said, adding that news reports have hyped the drama. "If you ask enough people if they've seen a ghost, somebody's going to tell you they saw a ghost."

City Councilman Scott Somers also characterized the media attention and controversy surrounding the sheriff's actions as "overblown."

Still, others maintain the fear is very real and grounded in the events of other communities.

"Some of the extremist groups on the other side ... are emboldened with what has kind of become a media event for the sheriff," said Lizzette Alameda Zubey, president of Los Abogados, the state's Hispanic bar association.

In previous sweeps, supporters and critics of the actions alike showed up en masse at the front lines to take part in loud, vocal demonstrations.

At the most recent operation three weeks ago in the tiny town of Guadalupe, some protesters brought guns, causing other protesters to back off and the sheriff's office to move its central command center into nearby Mesa.

Mesa police Chief George Gascón has said he is concerned about the culture clash and plans to take steps to maintain peace.

Just recently, in an internal memo, Gascón told of a demonstration by a pro-Arpaio group in which one man yelled racial slurs and another brought along a pit bull that snapped at officers.

Though Gascón has not revealed the entirety of his plans, some of Mesa's front-line officers said they were told to be ready on an hour's notice to respond in case of civil unrest.

As many as 90 officers and 36 SWAT team members have been trained to handle such situations, according to three officers who are not being named because they are not authorized to speak about the subject.

The team, which attended training last week, is broken into two groups, the officers said. When one is off, the other is on standby.

Those on standby are not allowed to drink alcohol and must be ready to respond in full gear, they said.

Joel Aguilar, a member of the Mesa chapter of Emigrantes Sin Fronteras, said most people are worried and getting ready for anything because Arpaio has been known to do things no one expects.

"We know something has been happening in Mesa," Aguilar said. "We could expect everything and anything from him."

Tribune writers Eddi Trevizo, Lindsay M. Butler, Dennis Welch, Sonu Munshi, Katie McDevitt, Mary K. Reinhart and CeCe Todd contributed to this report.