Mesa will take steps to ensure all city contractors comply with the employer sanctions law, possibly putting in place an auditing procedure so that no illegal immigrants are found to be working for a city contractor, Mayor Scott Smith said Tuesday.
Two weeks after the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office raided Mesa’s municipal buildings, Smith said at a media availability that the city has recognized there are some gaps in the way the city screens contractors and the workers they hire.
“It appears that there was a gap in that and we take that very seriously,” Smith said.
City staff is now being directed to incorporate “more detailed steps” to ensure that the “contractors are complying with what they say that they’re going to comply with in their contract,” Smith added.
The mayor noted that Mesa is not against the sheriff tackling illegal immigration in the city. He, however, maintained that Mesa and the MCSO differ in the way they approach the issue.
“Mesa police department and the City of Mesa is not here to interfere with the sheriff’s department but we want to make sure as they conduct activities, that we don’t inadvertently create a situation where public safety is compromised,” Smith said.
Sheriff’s deputies raided Mesa’s main city library downtown, Mesa City Hall and a records building Oct 16, after being tipped off from a fired security official. That official had told MCSO that illegal immigrants working for a city contractor were using fake identification.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies arrested three employees of the contractor, Management Cleaning Controls, at the library. Thirteen others were arrested from their homes for alleged forgery and identity theft.
The late night MCSO action prompted some sharp invective from Smith, who termed the move an endangerment to Mesa police officers and the public and called the way the whole thing was handled unprofessional.
Arpaio had stated that a Mesa police official ignored information about illegal workers hired by the contractor.
Smith said Tuesday the city had looked into the matter administratively. It can be debated whether that was the right way or the wrong way but that’s the way it was done, he said.
“Where we see the gap is that we took the word of the contractor who assured us that ‘no, we are following the law,’ and we recognize now that we could have done better and that we probably should go further in ensuring that our contractors, especially those with access to city facilities, are indeed following the law,” Smith said.
Smith met Arpaio on Friday to discuss the raids, a meeting he described as a good way to keep the communication lines open.
“We’ve turned a debate on immigration and how we’re going to enforce laws into a black-and-white issue and it certainly is not a black and white issue,” Smith said. “In our discussion with the sheriff, we agreed we have a different way of approaching things than he does. It does not mean one way is right and one way is wrong. It’s unfortunate we got to that point.”
But it doesn’t sound like Mesa is making a U-turn from its overall approach to viewing illegal immigration as a law enforcement issue.
Illegal immigration is balanced with resource allocation for a city police that needs to maximize public safety, of which immigration is “certainly one of the items we deal with but it’s only one of the items,” Smith said.
“We’re trying to do what we can to balance the effects of all the different activities,” the mayor added. “We have a lot of crime going on that we don’t want to have which goes on in addition to illegal immigration.”
Mesa’s approach to following the spirit of the employer sanctions law, which punishes employers for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, is to end a city contract.
“The greatest weapon we believe we have, the most effective in many ways, is the administrative weapon, which is to remove from the employer the incentive to hire illegals by removing the contract from them,” Smith said. The difference in opinion arose from how the allegation of identity theft was dealt with.
Most ID thefts police deal with are serious kinds of ID thefts, involving gangs and organized crime who wipe out people’s bank accounts, Smith said.
“In this case we did not view this purely as an ID theft issue,” Smith said. “I don’t want to minimize ID theft but the fact is we had people working night shifts as janitors and the fact is yes, they allegedly used a fake social security number. That’s something that will be taken seriously. But at this time the police made a judgment that this was more an administrative matter than a legal matter.”
Smith pointed to the overall illegal immigration issue as a problem the federal government has left for local governments to deal with.
“It’s unfortunate that now we’re having a debate over who does the better job of stepping in to do what the federal government should be doing at the most base level,” Smith said. “It’s created this animosity where there should not be any animosity.”
Funny,
first Mesa jumps up and down about the MCSO raids and now they decide that they will stop helping illegals break the law.
Funny how anyone can think this action will stop illegals from breaking the law. Looks like it’s more about stopping businesses from breaking the law. As long as we all keep hiring them, they’ll all keep coming. If everyone stops hiring illegals, there will no longer be an illegal immigration problem.
I would like to know just what the Sheriff is holding over the Mayor of Mesa’s head? He starts off standing up to Arpaio and then he backs down and bows down to the old bully!! Seriously Mayor show some guts and stand up to this clown. I want to know just how many of the individuals that Arpaio’s bully squad arrested at the Mesa Library in the middle of the night and others that they arrested at their homes the next day are actually being deported or were even here illegally or were even using fake identification! The only thing we ever get out of the sheriff’s office is the number of people he arrested - he never follows up with information about just how right he was or WASN’T about their residency status. Seriously - 60 Deputies with semi automatic weapons and full riot gear at 2:00 to go after a few people with brooms and mops and vaccum cleaners!?! All that overtime pay that we, the taxpayers, paid out and for what? Old Joe is just a balloon full of hot air, all blow and no substance. Debate your Opponent old Joe I double dog dare ya!!! Come on old man show us why anyone should cast his/her precious vote for you. You can’t do that though can you because you know that the minute you open your mouth everyone is reminded what an old fool you are. You ran for Sheriff only as a way to take revenge on someone who made you mad and you have been running the Sheriff’s office that way for the last 16 years. We need a Law Enforcement Officer as a Sheriff not a Media Clown with no substance. DAN SABAN FOR SHERIFF. DAN IS SUBSTANCE. JOE IS FLUFF.
Holding over the Mayor?
How about the moral obligation to FOLLOW THE LAW?
Something totally lost on you Kathy55 ?
Excellent job Joe, if Mesa won’t deal with this situation, then I am very happy to see that you are opening their eyes.
Oh, and Kathy55, it has now got the city of Mesa to say Ohh, ok, I guess we’ll follow the law. Took Ol’ Sheriff Joe to show the public just how Mesa was thumbing it’s nose at the law, just like you. Mesa looked at the situation and said, your right, I guess we better look into this. In other words JOE FIXED THE SITUATION!
Dumb @$$ liberals
KATHY 55 SEE YOUR SHRINK !
YOU GO JOE GREAT JOB
I think some of you miss the point. the mayor never said he was upset MCSO was investigating fraud, illegals or anything. His complaint was not giving the LE int he area info and in fact lying to LE that he was conducting opertations. I assure you MCSO will not be doing that again. All law enforcement nation wide lost respect for Sheriff Joe on that one. Now when he comes he will get the support of MPD, just like he has had all along on all of the sweeps and raids. MPD did help MCSO on the sweeps (when they requested it). all of this mis conception about lack of support by MPD is false. Only MCSO has proven that they dont want to work with other agencies.
kathy you rigth joe arpaio is clown hox dan saban pleas help us
mesaman…..THE ONLY LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES WHO LOST RESPECT FOR SHERIFF JOE AND THE GREAT DEPUTIES OF THE MCSO WERE A DISGRACE TO LAW ENFORCEMENT TO BEGIN WITH. MY GAWD, LOOK AT ALL THE “RECOMMENDS” ON THE BLOGS IN “FAVOR” OF SHERIFF JOE’S MESA CITY HALL RAID. HAVE YOU SEEN ONE (1) ARIZONA CITY COUNCIL ISSUE AN “OFFICIAL” CONDEMNATION OF THE RAID?…NOT EVEN THE MESA CITY COUNCIL ISSUED AN OFFICIAL CONDEMNATION. THE MESA CITY HALL RAID WILL PUT SHERIFF JOE IN THE “SADDLE” FOR ANOTHER 4 YEARS OVERWHELMINGLY. SO, mesaman, YOU , THE NEW TIMES, THE EV TRIB, THE AZ REPULIK, KCET CHANNEL 8’s “HORIZON” MODERATOR TED SIMMONS, REPORT PAUL GIBLIN AND ALL THE REST OF THE “PRO-ILLEGAL ALIEN IMMIGRATION CABAL” ARE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT…SHERIFF JOE RULES……..GOD BLESS THE MCSO…THE ONLY LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IN ARIZONA WHO BELIEVES IN THE RULE OF LAW. GOD BLESS SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO. GOD BLESS AMERICA.
City of Chandler had no problem renewing their (millions annually) contracts for landscaping after their monopoly vendor Artistic was found with many illegal employees during an MCSO raid. Thank you, Mayor, for clarifying non-serious ID theft. Does that apply to other things like non-serious assault, non-serious kidnapping, non-serious gun possession/use, non-serious theft, non-serious false ID, non-serious possession of false MVD related documents (driver license, registration, insurance)? As a society, we must owe an apology. Prop 202 is slated to “stop illegal hiring” but all it will do is give amnesty to (and reward) the companies that are continuing to hire undocumented workers and thus it will allow government agencies the continued protection they need as they allow the current (we didn’t know) practices to continue. Our current Legal Arizona Workers Act went into effect January 1 and works fine; it was what the people wanted. The proposed Prop 202 (misleading title) will gut the present Arizona law since no action can be taken against employers by Arizona until the Federal Government takes action first. It eliminates whistle-blower reporting. And we will be right back where we were: a MAGNET drawing in (and protecting the employers of) llegal workers and preserving the proud, sanctuary status we have as a city and again will have as a state. Look seriously at Prop 202’s provisions and then vote NO!
Ilegals will continue to spill into this country until they can come up with an Olympics team….
Heck, They’ll take the gold in “Landscaping” , the silver in “Housekeeping”, & the bronze in “drive by shootings”…lol
I say we all pitch in and help them get a team…Then they can all go home.
Keep up the good work Joe..
We own and operate a long standing business that is directly impacted by other companies hiring illegals. Due to this, they underbid us on many jobs since we hire only legal Americans and have been doing so for many years. We pay higher wages and treat our people great. But thanks to idiots like Kathy 55 (who think that all illegals are just poor victims and aren’t hurting anyone ) and cities like Mesa and businesses all over the Valley who don’t think about illegals being in their offices, our business has had to scale back on hiring citizens. That’s right- Americans losing out on jobs so that illegals can continue working. Oh, and that old line that the illegal lovers trot out about them doing the work that Americans won’t do? We’ve been working FT jobs and running a labor intensive service business for an additional 30 hours per week for FIFTEEN YEARS , we’re not young and we can work circles around any illegal any day so don’t hand me that garbage. Some of the people in the Valley need to get out and see how real people make a living. Americans are the best workers in the wolrd and we don’t need illegal labor- we need living wages.