Arizona elects sheriff known for racial profiling—and passes a law to let him do it

Immigrants in Arizona are on edge following an election that brought former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s right-hand man, Jerry Sheridan, back to lead the department, and the passage of anti-immigration Proposition 314.

Arizonans approved Prop 314, which gives state law enforcement authority to arrest anyone they suspect has entered the country outside authorized ports of entry and declares crossing the border anywhere outside a port of entry to be a state crime.

And with Sheridan at the helm of the state’s largest law enforcement agency, who was found by a federal judge to be in civil contempt of court for disobeying a 2011 preliminary order to stop holding people based solely on suspected immigration violations, people don’t trust his word that he wouldn’t do it again.

Will Proposition 314 be enforced?

It is not guaranteed that the border-crossing provision in Prop 314 will be enforceable any time soon, as a provision written into the law puts this portion on pause until a similar anti-immigration law in Texas has been in effect for 60 days. That law, known as Senate Bill 4, is currently being challenged in court for conflicting with federal immigration law.

But whether it will be formally enforced, or its existence used to instigate hostility towards immigrants, people like Alexia Isais are preparing for any scenario—and they aren’t expecting anyone to come to their aid.

Alexia Isais, a sixth-grade teacher in South Phoenix, where she teaches with a number of Latino and immigrant students, doesn’t trust that Sheridan won’t enforce Prop 314 because of his record of being former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “right-hand man.”

Sheriff-elect Sheridan has said that Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies would not attempt to enforce Prop 314 law on his watch, the Arizona Republic reported, as he interpreted the law to mean someone had to be caught in the act of “coming over the fence” at the border.

“We can’t trust people who … obviously do not have immigrant interests at heart, especially with the kind of background that he has, the racist kind of agenda that he has, we can’t even be sure that he won’t try and institute his own thing or his own method of discrimination,” Isais said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of AZ is approaching Sheridan’s office with the assumption that he will abide by the law, obey federal court orders, and not enforce any federal immigration laws, said Christine Wee, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of AZ.

Sheridan declined to comment at the request of The Copper Courier.

People are aware of the history the MCSO has regarding racial profiling, and “it’s not a matter of whether it’s right or wrong, but it’s what history has taught them, has taught us,” Wee said. “I don’t believe that the Sheriff or anyone at the agency is above the law, or can get away with any illegal action just because they’re wearing the badge of Sheriff.”

If the illegal entry portion of Prop 314 goes into effect, the Wee says the ACLU of AZ will litigate the case—and just like when they took on SB 1070, they plan to win.

Sheridan will inherit a department that remains under federal oversight from its previous discriminatory policies and practices that were in place when Sheridan was Arpaio’s chief deputy. Despite the incoming Trump administration’s leniency towards discriminatory police practices, Wee is confident that federal oversight will continue, as it was put in place by a federal district court judge.

“If he strays, or anyone from the agency strays from that, then we will address it, and we will make it a point to fight that,” Wee said. “[It] doesn’t mean that we’re going to turn a blind eye to the past.”

Why not trust Sheridan?

Rebecca Denis, a family justice organizer with the nonprofit Poder in Action, works with families whose loved ones have been killed by the police, and many of the families she works with are immigrants. As someone who works with an organization focused on building the power of people of color and working-class communities, Denis considers Sheridan holding office as a danger to immigrant families.

Sheridan, who was Arpaio’s chief deputy from 2011 to 2016, didn’t escape the administration with clean hands.

“I think actions speak a lot louder than words, so I think when we look back at the history of who this person is and what they have done in their positions of leadership, that says a lot more,” Denis said.

He was found to be in civil contempt of court and now holds a spot on the Brady List, a database of peace officers with sustained findings of credibility and truthfulness issues, for lying under oath and defying judge orders.

Arpaio, on the other hand, received a presidential pardon in 2017 from Trump for his contempt conviction.

Arpaio was known for his sweeps of Latino neighborhoods, where sheriff’s deputies would pull over Latino drivers for minor traffic violations just to scrutinize their immigration status.

The sweeps were ruled unconstitutional by a US District Court judge, resulting in the racial profiling class-action lawsuit filed in 2007, Melendres vs. Arpaio.

US District Court Judge, Judge G. Murray Snow issued a preliminary injunction in December 2011 that ordered Arpaio and his deputies to stop targeting Latino drivers – but, they still continued to stop Latino drivers on the basis of race for at least 18 months.

“We see Jerry Sheridan and the Maricopa sheriff’s office as an extension of what we know to be true, which is that policing is dangerous for black and brown people,” Denis said.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office reached compliance with federal court orders earlier this year, 11 years after Judge Snow mandated oversight. The ordeal cost Arizona taxpayers over $300 million.

“​​This isn’t just about Jerry Sheridan,” said Denis. “We know that policing as a whole, and we see it every day in our communities, is inherently violent, it is inherently like a very racist institution, and these practices in our communities are what they’ve been doing…they’ve never stopped.”

Immigrant communities can’t rely on the promises of people in power who say they are going to keep them safe, they have already fought to keep one another safe, Denis said.

“Our community knows how to band together, they know what it looks like to live under terror, they’ve lived under it, and they have continued to survive under it,” she said.