Mesa sweep heats up Arpaio-Gascón feud

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's long-planned immigration sweep in Mesa was steered far off course on Thursday, with deputies having to fan out across the city instead of making focused, saturated patrols as he had hoped.

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The Maricopa County sheriff blamed the city's police chief, George Gascón, for upstaging the event by creating safe places for protesters and having officers ready to quell violence should it break out.

Arpaio's office spent more than two months promising the sweep and ended up netting 13 suspected illegal immigrants and 15 other suspects in the city with a population of about 460,000.

At an afternoon news conference, Arpaio, a Republican who faces re-election in November, spoke in red-faced anger at length about Gascón and "all his garbage."

He said the chief overreacted by flooding the city with his own men to observe the operation and protect the civil rights of Mesa residents.

"The bottom line: He's doing everything to keep me from going into that city, locking up illegals," Arpaio said, his voice rising. "We will be in there today, tomorrow and I'm going to tell ya, next time I go in there, I'm not going to tell him."

Before coming to Mesa, Arpaio agreed to tell Gascón about his plans, and even to allow a Mesa officer to work at the sheriff's outpost to fuel better communication between the two agencies.

But late in the afternoon, Gascón said that communication was dead. The city's police force was left clueless about what the sheriff was doing inside city limits.

"I think he's speaking out of anger today," Gascón said. "I'm disappointed. I've been in this profession a long time and I've never experienced this kind of behavior from a law enforcement officer."

Arpaio originally planned to set up a home base for the sweeps near U.S. 60 and Mesa Drive, where his office has a permanent station.

But as some 200 protesters gathered and Mesa police began to set up, too, the sheriff changed his game plan and sent his squads throughout the city on what appeared to be fishing expeditions.

At the original location, the Mesa police department left 131 officers to watch over the events of the day.

Gascón ordered the watch after demonstrations between competing protesters and counterprotesters nearly boiled over into violence at past sweeps.

Some officers at the scene stayed near the demonstrators. Some officers were stationed on top of the nearby court building. Dozens of bike officers and patrol officers helped people in and out of the area. And SWAT units were placed in hidden locations.

Officers from Tempe, Chandler and the Arizona Department of Public Safety also were on the scene to help, as were officers from the state attorney general's office.

Click to view a map showing the results of recent sweeps

"We also have some undercover officers looking for some flash points out there," said Mesa Cmdr. Steve Stahl. "The only issues we have are communication issues."

Gascón told reporters at his own news conference he was not interested in where the deputies were or what they were doing - only in keeping the peace among the demonstrators.

He said he was happy with the way Mesa police were handling the situation, one they had prepared for since witnessing prior sweeps in Phoenix and Guadalupe.

"As you can tell, the operation is a successful one," Gascón said. "We believe this is a marked difference from what occurred in Guadalupe and Phoenix. The sheriff's office is able to conduct their operation and do it safely."

Arpaio's squads, however, were left to spread out throughout the city, even as far east as Ellsworth Road and Apache Trail.

In one operation near that intersection, deputies congregated in an alley behind a grocery store, where a bus, several patrol cars and at least two unmarked vehicles could be seen.

At least one man was arrested there before the group of uniformed deputies left to continue patrols.

All of this took place as activists with a video camera recorded the event and took notes, hopefully, they said, to prove civil rights violations occurred.

In all, the sheriff had 47 deputies and 35 posse members take part in the sweep, Arpaio said.

"We had to change our operation up because of all the hype," Arpaio said at a late-night news conference, his second of the day.

Arpaio also said that a suspected drop house was discovered near Country Club Drive and McKellips Road and nine suspected illegals were arrested.

Thursday's sweep marked another battle between Arpaio and Gascón, two law enforcement heavyweights who increasingly find themselves on opposite sides of the immigration debate.

Gascón, formerly an assistant chief for the Los Angeles Police Department, has actively spoken out against the sheriff's tactics for more than a year now.

Arpaio frequently says he's insulted by Gascón's criticisms and often returns the blow with his own accusations.

Beyond the police, the U.S. Justice Department was also on hand to monitor the strong racial and ethnic tensions that came with the sweeps, said Ryan Breitenbach, special counsel for the Justice Department's Community Relations Service.

One of the agency's regional directors, Ronald Wakabayashi, was there to act as a mediator and observer, Breitenbach said.

However, he would not give out details about what the director saw or would do with his observations.

"We take no sides as to any of the arguments being made because we are neutral," said Breitenbach. "But we will try to hammer out some type of agreement that has no law enforcement power."

Sitting under a tent back at the scene of the demonstrations, Chaplain Jennie Castroman, of Mesa's Pueblo de Dios church, said the sweep has left some Mesa residents hungry because people did not show up to pick up food boxes. Normally the church, at 59th and Horne, distributes food boxes to more than 200 families every Thursday.

"He's not doing his job," she said. "He's hurting our people."

About a dozen people showed up to support Arpaio. Most of the groups who have turned out in the past stayed away, saying they didn't want to create an unsafe situation.

Richard Ingebreitsen, 65, carried an American flag. He said he's tired of illegal immigrants taking the jobs of blue-collar workers in America. He said he supports legal immigration as long as people become citizens.

Tribune writers Mary K. Reinhart, Ryan Gabrielson and Eddi Trevizo contributed to this report