Mesa mayor rips Arpaio on city buildings raid

Mesa Mayor Scott Smith on Thursday blasted Sheriff Joe Arpaio for sending dozens of heavily armed deputies on a secret early morning raid at City Hall and other city buildings, saying the operation was “egregious” and “put the public at risk.”

VIDEO: Watch surveillance footage of raid

VIDEO: Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and Sheriff Joe Arpaio discuss raid

The SWAT-type raid resulted in the arrests of three janitors, who were suspected of being in the country illegally and using fake IDs to work at a company that provided cleaning services for Mesa.

Search warrants in hand, Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies first swept through City Hall about 2 a.m. After finding no illegal workers there, they turned to Mesa’s nearby Main Library, where they found the two janitors inside and the other in the parking lot.

The mayor said neither the city nor its police department were given any warning. The secrecy created the potential for accidental violence or conflict between agencies, he said.

“I believe the safety of our citizens was gravely compromised,” Smith said at an afternoon news conference. “I believe we had set the scene where bad things could happen … and I believe that crosses the line to what law enforcement can and should do.”

At his own news conference, Arpaio said the raids were part of a broader investigation into the company, Management Cleaning Controls, which also provides services for major corporations nationwide.

Deputies arrested 13 more suspected illegal immigrants, including a manager at the company, elsewhere in the Valley during the day, Arpaio said.

“It’s my jurisdiction, too,” Arpaio said of Mesa. “I’m the sheriff of the whole county.”

Arpaio also said his agency told the city about the raids days in advance, but offered no proof of it.

The mayor said Arpaio’s claim was false.

“We received no information from anyone,” Smith said.

The events of the day mark a breathtaking escalation of tension between Mesa officials and the sheriff’s office, which have clashed over how to handle immigration enforcement inside city limits.

Arpaio is correct that both agencies have jurisdiction inside the city, but each has taken a drastically different approach to the situation.

Led by police Chief George Gascón and the city’s first-term mayor, Mesa has chosen to target those it considers the most violent career criminals within its boundaries. If illegal immigrants are caught in the process, they are turned over to federal immigration authorities.

Arpaio, on the other hand, has chosen to send squads of deputies into the city looking specifically for illegal immigrants of any stripe.

The sheriff’s sweeps have brought with them large-scale protests and accusations of racial profiling and illegal police tactics. They also have resulted in the arrests of a few dozen suspected illegal immigrants.

In all of the sheriff’s operations in Mesa, the city has asked Arpaio to give at least two days’ notice so it can help to keep the peace. In recent operations, Arpaio has refused to do so, saying Mesa’s Police Department will interfere with the tactics.

On Thursday, the sheriff said the investigation into the Louisville, Ky.-based Management Cleaning Controls began in May when investigators got a tip from a former Mesa city employee.

“We didn’t go into the place overnight,” Arpaio said.

An undercover investigator was sent to the company to try to get work there without the proper paperwork, Arpaio said.

The investigator was given instructions by the company on how to obtain fake identification and told by a manager to make sure the ID belonged to someone else “so it could pass muster” with the city’s security office.

Arpaio also said the same Mesa employee who tipped off the sheriff’s office tried to do the same with the Mesa Police Department.

In fact, Arpaio said, the unnamed employee specifically told Lt. Wade Pew of the department’s municipal security section. Instead of acting, Pew “told the employee that that’s not the Mesa police’s problem. It’s the company’s problem,” Arpaio said.

Reached by phone, Pew denied the allegation. “The information provided to the sheriff’s office is not accurate, from what I told the employee,” he said.

Smith said the city’s contract with Management Cleaning Controls requires it to follow state law and hire legal workers.

In an e-mail, Charles Scudder, the chairman of the company, said it has been using the national E-Verify system to check the citizenship status of its workers since October 2007.

The company “does not hire illegal aliens,” Scudder wrote. “(Management Cleaning Controls) always strives to follow best hiring practices.”

Still, the sheriff’s office used the information as a basis to get search warrants and head to Mesa.

About 12:30 a.m., according to the Mesa mayor, a police officer with the city first spotted a group of men “dressed in battle gear and semiautomatic weapons” in a park near the Mormon temple.

The officer figured out the men were sheriff’s deputies, but when he asked them what they were up to, the men told him they were not allowed to tell, Smith said. A short time later, the city’s police were told the deputies were there to train their dogs, he said.

“The warrants were served on Mesa Main Library and on City Hall soon after that,” Smith said.

At his news conference, Smith showed a surveillance video from the library showing some 30 deputies sweeping through the building dressed in flak jackets and carrying weapons.

The tactics angered many in the local law enforcement community, including the president of Mesa’s main police union.

“It could have been handled with a lot more tact,” said Fabian Cota, president of the union. “But the sheriff has demonstrated that he’s more interested in trying to cause embarrassment and controversy than working with agencies to get a handle on the problem.”

Cota called Arpaio a “loose cannon” who works “as a one-man show.”

Dan Saban, Arpaio’s opponent in the Nov. 4 sheriff’s election, made similar comments.

“It’s just inappropriate,” Saban said. “It’s unethical.”

Mesa’s mayor said he hopes to use this as a catalyst to sit down with Arpaio and talk to him about better cooperation.

“What could have happened was a simple phone call to the city of Mesa,” Smith said. “I’m not hard to find. Anyone in Maricopa County can call me and, again, we are more than willing to work.”