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Arpaio won't testify at congressional hearings
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The media question Sheriff Joe Arpaio in his Phoenix office about a crime sweep in June 2008.
Tribune File
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will likely be central to Thursday’s congressional hearings on local immigration enforcement.
But Arpaio won’t be there.
The sheriff was not formally invited. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Michigan and chairman of the U.S. House judiciary committee, called on Arpaio to testify at the hearings in public statements to the media.
“When I get invited, someone either has to call me or write a letter,” Arpaio said. “I never got anything. I don’t care what the media says.”
Instead, Mesa Police Chief George Gascón and seven others will testify before the U.S. House judiciary committee.
The judiciary committee has not yet released a complete witness list. It will include academics, community activists and law enforcement officials, said Jonathan Godfrey, a Conyers spokesman.
The hearings are focused on the public safety and civil rights implications of the “287(g)” program, which allows state and local law enforcement to engage in federal immigration enforcement.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has 160 of its deputies and corrections officers trained under the program, by far the nation’s largest contingent. Its large-scale operations have become the “poster-boy” for local immigration enforcement, Arpaio said.
Mesa’s police department is not part of the 287(g) program.
Arpaio on Wednesday questioned why Gascón was asked to testify.
“Why are just the critics invited?” the sheriff said.
Gascón and Arpaio have long been critical of each other’s approach to illegal immigration enforcement.
The committee did not ask Gascón to testify about the sheriff’s office and the police chief does not intend to do so, said Sgt. Edward Wessing, a Mesa police spokesman.
“This has nothing to do with Sheriff Joe Arpaio,” Wessing said.
Mesa is not paying Gascón’s travel expenses, Wessing said; a group of non-profit, pro-immigration reform organizations is expected to cover those costs. Wessing said he could not name the exact organizations on Wednesday.
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