We all missed this on Friday (via):
Maricopa County Sheriff Office deputies arrested a 6-year-old suspected illegal immigrant Friday, the day President Barack Obama softened the country’s deportation policy toward young illegal immigrants.
Joe doesn’t understand irony:
“I suspect that this is politics to get the Hispanic vote,” Arpaio said. “It’s sad to use the kids as a political tool to get a certain segment of our society’s vote.”
Looking at Arizona voter registration statistics [pdf], it looks like it will be a long time before Maricopa County flips to the Democrats, but, overall, there’s only about 150K (~5%) between the Democrats and the Republicans (plus Libertarians) statewide. The Hispanic population in that state grew 46.3% in the past decade. The math here isn’t hard, but the Republicans in Arizona seem to be happy to let an 80 year-old birther who likes to arrest children be their public face. I wonder if Jeff Flake, or “Mr. Amnesty” as his Republican primary opponent calls him, has the mother of all pivot/etch-a-sketch strategies that will simultaneously win a Republican primary and erase the public’s memory that he’s on the same line as Phoenix’ version of Bull Connor.
Also, too: I realize the “Asshole” tag is getting overused, but I think this guy passes the test.
bago
He and G Gordon Liddy should make a show together. Insead of General Hospital, it would be General Asshole.
Any other suggestions?
Patricia Kayden
I had to laugh at Arpaio’s last quote in the first linked article where he says that he disagrees with the President’s announcement. Has Obama done anything with which Arpaio agrees?
JGabriel
mistermix @ Top:
I don’t think it’s actually possible to overuse the word asshole when Conservatives are the topic of discussion.
And even if it is possible, at present it remains a circumstance beyond our control.
.
JGabriel
mistermix @ Top:
I don’t think it’s actually possible to overuse the word asshole when Conservatives are the topic of discussion.
And even if it is possible, at present it remains a circumstance beyond our control.
.
Randy P
Sheriff Joe never disappoints, does he?
I didn’t realize he was 80 years old. Are there any junior Sheriff Joe’s waiting in the wings?
The Other Bob
Deporting kids who have lived here all their lives after their parents bring them into the country illigally is like imprisoning a 10 year old because his parents took him with them on a bank robbery.
Stupid.
c u n d gulag
@bago:
How about, “The Old and the Conscienceless?”
c u n d gulag
@Randy P:
There are ALWAYS junior Sheriff Joe’s waiting in the wings!
This has ended today’s edition of SATSQ.
Valdivia
And here is how the Obama announcement pays off in ways the anglo media rarely understands.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/prominent-hispanic-media-figure-cristina-saralegui-endorses-obama
No Rubio VP candidacy will move those numbers.
JGabriel
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Randy P:
Hate keeps
him younghis carcasse animated by the spirit of Shaitan..
rikyrah
I want this mofo in an orange jumpsuit so bad I can taste it.
c u n d gulag
@rikyrah:
NOT orange – PINK !
Keith
I’m curious if the 6-year old was cuffed…the national optics of that would huge.
Snarki, child of Loki
What? The kid couldn’t speak english clearly, didn’t have a valid drivers license or other ID to prove citizenship, and besides, looked suspiciously swarthy?
flukebucket
Given his age I wonder if Sheriff Joe might have been one of the skull crackers and / or dog handlers during the Civil Rights era.
Trakker
Caveat: I’m already not having a good day.
I used to laugh at the Republican idiocy and dream of the day demographics hands them their asses, but lately the real idiots appear to be the American voters. Anyone who expects a majority of voters in America to have long memories may be in for a surprise. Stupidity, inattention, and a Billion dollars in donations to be used for spin and rebranding, and in no time at all the GOP will again be the party of Lincoln, the party that freed the slaves, a true friend of the poor, and the party that is fighting the socialist(eek!!) Democrats to preserve our freedoms and keep us from being like Europe.
Mr Stagger Lee
When this motherf***er dies, I don’t want to hear respect for the dead bullS**t! I hope his family will consider cremating him and spreading his ashes because there will be lines of people urinating on this Bull Conner wannabe’s grave.
gnomedad
He can’t possibly have said this; it’s too perfect. Lying librul media.
Linda Featheringill
The linked article said that the child was turned over to ICE while the rest of the people are still in the loving care of Joe.
I was concerned about the welfare of the child but ICE will probably take care of her properly and try to find family or something.
bago
@c u n d gulag: The Decrepit and the Devil?
Villago Delenda Est
This is how you deal with guys like Arpaio
kerFuFFler
I think the spirit of Obama’s proposal is to avoid arresting young illegals who have been here many years and have done well in school or have served in the military. I don’t think that illegals who have only just crossed the border are meant to be included under the “amnesty”.
mouse tolliver
There should be a viral web campaign on the asshole theme. “Republicans. They’re just assholes.” Is there footage of the Romeny bus circling the Obama speech and honking? Cause that would be a good start.
Ella in New Mexico
@The Other Bob:
So in agreement with you. However, regardless of the assininity of Arpaio’s historical abuse of The Tan People, it appears that this intervention may have saved this little girl’s life. The article states she was not with a parent or relative at all, and that the group was identified and arrested as part of an investigation a human trafficking ring.
Human smuggling/sex trafficking rings in this country are growing as fast as we can identify them, and are being run by the same organized crime groups that run the cartels. We are barely touching the tip of the iceberg in rescuing these people from a life of slavery.
Clearly, taking a child without her parents to another country means there were no good plans for her. I would rather have seen her taken to social services and placed in foster care until this case is worked out–but at least she is not going to some pervert’s home to be molested until she’s old enough to bear his child.
No Tribe
Amazin what tribalistic politics does to a brain.
You know Doug,
I don’t agree with anything that Arpaio is doing and will go so far as to say I support full amnesty for immigrants residing in the US.
However, what do you think human smugglers were doing with a 6 year old girl without any parents or guardian present?
Do you need that spelled out for you?
Sometimes bad people luck into achieving positive outcomes.
The girl has been turned over to federal authorities and and any federal agent worth his/her salt would have to be asking: who paid you to deliver this girl? and who was accepting delivery?
Perhaps I am wrong, but evil Arpaio might have saved this girl from a short life of misery and pain.
Cacti
@Randy P:
There was Paul Babeu, but he nuked his AZ political career when it came out that he was teh ghey and was carrying on with a Mexican fellow who had overstayed his visa.
Davis X. Machina
@The Other Bob: They’ll chose other, better parents next time.
Problem solved — the Market, blessed be It, solves all problems.
azlib
AZ voters actually support the DREAM Act by a wide margin. I think the Republicans here are sticking their foot in their mouths on this one.
jon
The entire reason immigrants bring their children along is that we’ve made it impossible for them to travel back and forth and do the migratory and temporary jobs that were once done and now have to support their families in Mexico through illegal jobs in farms and construction but also for hotels, restaurants, landscapers, and other fields where a day’s pay is often in-cash and off-the-books. And since it’s impossible to get a work visa without computer skills or an employer willing to put up big money for the privilege of owning a foreign worker’s right to be here (seriously, look up the possibilities for a low-skilled would-be immigrant,) they have to risk their lives for those shitty jobs. And since they will miss their families, they’ll risk their lives to get them here as well.
Funny how all of this can be solved with a guest-worker program that most liberals and conservatives could plan out on two or three sheets of standard-sized paper. Liberals seem to be willing to propose such things on a regular basis, but conservatives like the status quo. Why? Because those same hotels, restaurants, agribusinesses, and so forth just love having those low-wage workers. Do such businesses get raided by immigration? Rarely. But the restaurant down the street might if the owners don’t pay the right people.
America: Mexico with bigger bribes.
jon
Here is one of those rare instances where Reason Magazine did something worthwhile.
wobbly
Kid doesn’t qualify under Napolitano’s new rules-hasn’t been here over five years.
Under what authority do county officials enforce federal laws?
Mnemosyne
@Ella in New Mexico:
Given Arpaio’s extremely poor record of investigating child molestation cases, I doubt this poor kid is going to get anything more than a ticket back to El Salvador where she can be sold into slavery once again.
Ella in New Mexico
@Mnemosyne: Except that now she is in the hands of Federal authorities, which I am guessing means there will actually be some rules followed.