Divers recover 2 people from Arizona canal

Two kids murdered by policy and the enforcers of the brutal regime of law and order

GILA BEND - The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says the bodies of two suspected illegal immigrants have been recovered from a canal near Gila Bend along Old Route U.S. 80 west of Phoenix.

The Sheriff's Office said Thursday they believe these may be the two people who had jumped into the canal late last week.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Jeff Sprong says the teenagers went missing after a Sheriff's deputy pulled over a sedan carrying five illegal immigrants on a traffic violation near Gila Bend last Thursday night.

All five ran away from the vehicle and made their way into the canal. Three of the five were found later by deputies.

Authorities say the description of the clothing is consistent with what was recovered Wednesday night.

The investigation is ongoing.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/12/23/20101223arizona-immigrant-bodies-pulled-from-canal.html

15 arrested during raid of Phoenix meat-packing business

Fifteen people were arrested after Maricopa County sheriff's deputies served a search warrant at a Phoenix meat-packing business with employees suspected of using stolen identities on Tuesday.

Between 30 and 40 employees at Prime Cut Meat & Seafood Company were detained by the deputies as the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office looked for 15 to 20 people suspected of identity theft. The Sheriff's Office had been investigating the case for several months, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.

"We're going to continue business raids because you have to understand we have an unemployment problem," Arpaio said. "We took off 15 people with felonies off the street."

At least five of the people arrested had fake dates of birth and Social Security numbers. One of those arrested, a woman, was using the identification of a 90-year-old woman, Arpaio said.

"This is a serious problem, and I'm the bad guy," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. "People forget (the people we arrested) have false identification, and that's a serious problem."

As the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office drove away from the business, the co-workers of the arrested people waved, cried and one of them shouted in Spanish, "This is an injustice!"

"They destroy families, separate them," said Erasto Martinez, 47, an employee.

Chad Poppen, the owner of Prime Cut Meat & Seafood Company said he was upset at how the system worked.

"I lost one-third of my working staff," said Poppen, who said he runs his employees' information through E-Verify. The system is "forcing you to hire based on the color of their skin."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/10/12/20101012phoenix-sheriff-immigration-raid-abrk.html

Joe Arpaio's Guards Break Woman's Arm, ICE Releases Her on Own Recognizance

Maria del Carmen Garcia Martinez, after being released from ICE custody.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a suspected illegal immigrant Thursday night after it was determined that her arm had been broken while she was in MCSO custody.

Maria del Carmen Garcia Martinez was released on her own recognizance, her left arm slung in a cast after she received treatment at St. Joseph's. She had been turned over to ICE earlier in the day by the MCSO. ICE took her to St. Joseph's for medical attention, photographed her injuries and released her with a pending court date around 8 p.m. from its offices on Central Ave.

Martinez, being greeted by her family outside ICE's Central Avenue HQ.

Martinez, 46, was met by her family, Respect/Respeto activist Lydia Guzman and a couple of reporters, including yours truly. Her left arm was swollen as was her leg and ankle. As her daughter Sandra translated, she explained that she was recently arrested by the Phoenix Police Department, after she was questioned about posting signs for a yard sale.

She said she was arrested for a having a fraudulent I.D., even though her I.D. was an out-of-date I.D. card from California, according to her. Martinez was then collared and booked into MCSO custody.

(Oddly, the Phoenix PD's on-call spokesperson, an Officer Holmes, said he could find no record of Martinez in their system.)

While in custody at Lower Buckeye Jail, Martinez said she was brutalized by six MCSO detention officers, who were trying to get her to put her fingerprints on a voluntrary removal order, a document wherein an undocumented foreign national gives his or her consent to be repatriated.

(Lydia Guzman asserted that sometimes MCSO will attempt to get a fingerprint instead of a signature for the VR form. An ICE spokesman had no immediate explanation for this procedure.)

Martinez refused, as was her right, but the officers tried to force her, she said. They stepped on her, twisted her arm, and beat her. She noticed that one of the officers was Hispanic.

"Why are you doing this to me, when you came from Mexico also," she told the Hispanic guard.

She was placed in a cell by herself, and later that night she was visited by eight MCSO officers, who warned her to sign the VR, or, "We're all going to get you," she said they told her.

Martinez's right hand was swollen, and stained with blue ink.

A fellow inmate advised Martinez's daughter that her mother had been beat down. She feared for her mother's life, and advised her lawyers, who filed an emergency stay on Martinez's behalf.

According to her daughter Sandra, Martinez was a housemom, who stayed home and took care of the family. Martinez's husband works as a handyman. They came here three years ago from California, looking for a less expensive way of life.

"I'm proud of her, and I'm glad that she's out," said Sandra, her eyes welling with tears. "I couldn't sleep. I would think of her, and cry every night because I missed her so much."

Ironically, because the MCSO has apparently abused her, Martinez may get to stay in this country permanently, noted Guzman, who has been following the case since Martinez was arrested.

For updates on this item, check this related Bird column, and this Feathered Bastard blog update.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/03/joe_arpaios_goons_break_womans.php