Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik refuses to enforce state's new 'racist' immigration law

BY EDGAR SANDOVAL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Originally Published:Thursday, April 29th 2010, 8:43 AM
Updated: Friday, April 30th 2010, 2:12 AM

Moore/Getty

An undocumented Mexican immigrant waits to be deported from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), center in Phoenix, Arizona, Wednesday.

Pima County Sheriff's Department

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

 

PHOENIX - Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnick kept his mouth shut during the great Arizona debate on locking up undocumented aliens.

Come August, when his 500 deputies become responsible for busting illegals, the sheriff's actions will speak louder than any words: His men will look the other way.

"We are not immigration officials," Dupnick vowed Thursday. "We fight crime. The state put us in this position."

The controversial new Arizona law created cracks in the typically solid Blue Wall of law enforcement even before it was passed.

The law makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally, and requires local and state law enforcement to ask suspected illegals about their immigration status.

The pro-bill contingent included the Phoenix police union, which helped push the new law.

Anti-bill activists included the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, which argued to kill the bill.

Now that it's the law, most local police are resigned to adding immigration enforcement to their traditional duties - although mavericks like Dupnick remain steadfastly opposed.

Mark Spencer, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, insisted the new law won't add much work.

Phoenix cops already give the names of suspected illegals to federal agents under a program dubbed Operation Orders.

About 3,000 have been deported with the cops' help in the last two years. And Spencer said illegals are not difficult to identify.

"If the person doesn't speak English, shows a fake Social Security card and admits to our officer he is an illegal alien, that's a reasonable suspicion to me," said Spencer, whose group represents most of Phoenix's 2,500 cops.

Those opposed to the law, he said, "are creating a protected class of criminals."

Jane Strauss, executive director of the police chiefs association, said most of law enforcement is on the same page despite their earlier differences.

"We will be enforcing the law as written," Strauss said.

Dupnick says he won't.

"Our jails would be filled in a day," said the sheriff, whose office is about 110 miles south of Phoenix. "We would need to prosecute hundreds of people a day.

"We don't have the manpower for so many arrests, and it would cost taxpayers a lot of money in prosecutions."

Arizona is home to an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants.

Dupnick said he never joined the contentious debate over the controversial bill because he didn't expect Gov. Jan Brewer or state legislators to approve it.

"This law, it's just irresponsible," he said. "It makes them [legislators] look like racists."