But we shouldn’t necessarily be looking at how McCain will differ or agree with George W. Bush or other Republicans.  We should instead look at the Republican presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt for insight as to how McCain would approach his own presidency.

In the midst of the Civil War and with his first term nearing its end, Lincoln was a lonely man.  He was facing a steady stream of criticism from Democrats, his own party was fracturing, and Lincoln was seen as too politically wounded to do anything about it.  The Lincoln presidency, it seemed, was headed to the history books after only one term.

Early in the election year of 1864, it didn’t look good for Lincoln, something to which the John McCain of 2007 can easily relate.  The chances for Lincoln’s re-election seemed bleak, all the while Democrats were crafting their convention platform that used language that would make Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid proud, calling the war against the south, a “failure.”

But Lincoln held steady.  He didn’t hold focus groups.  He didn’t commission a poll.  He didn’t worry about what the pundits were saying.  He led.

Lincoln, like McCain, was putting country before self.  Better to lose an election than to lose a war.  Come Election Day, Lincoln won all but two states, capturing 212 of 233 electoral votes.

Theodore Roosevelt on the other hand was the Republican Party’s resident maverick before the term had even entered the political lexicon.

Corrupt corporations were under the microscope when the trust buster TR moved into the White House and this perceived tilt to the left made TR no friend of his party’s conservative leaders.  Sound familiar?

McCain has ruffled the feathers of big business throughout his career.  Just ask executives in industries as varied as tobacco, cable television and even boxing whether they’re fans of John McCain.  Ask big money party donors whether they like McCain’s crusade in favor of campaign finance reform.

Flash forward to 2008.  Roosevelt’s image is on Mount Rushmore and John McCain is the Republican Party’s nominee for president.  Not bad for two guys once considered to be too maverick for the GOP.

We know where John McCain stands.  He was the lonely voice calling for the surge in troop levels when things were at their bleakest in Iraq and he was the only Republican candidate in the 2008 field to speak with the consistency of someone who understood not just the costs of not fighting, but also of not winning a war.

So while the political winds shift this way and that, John McCain is right where he’s always been.  He’s continually confounding his critics and the pundits and he’s giving our nation a dose of straight talk when we need it more than ever.

And he’s harkening back to presidents like Lincoln and Roosevelt and a time when presidents truly led with courage and conviction, and when the interests of the nation came before the interests of the party.  Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt were visionary leaders that inspired generations of Americans long after their Presidencies had come to an end.

Senator McCain is in the same mold as those leaders and provides the Republican Party with another visionary leader that can inspire our generation, as well as future generations, to achieve greatness.  Sen. McCain’s story is one of courage and dedication to American values and our country would be privileged to have him as a leader.  So on Election Day, let’s choose a leader that can inspire our country to new heights and   lead the United States into a future we all deserve.

Our Founding Fathers recognized this unique opportunity and providence for America when they signed their names to one of the most powerful documents in the history of mankind. The Declaration of Independence codified Winthrop’s vision of a city upon a hill and recognized that all men had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

What makes this message so powerful is the promise of freedom and human rights for all people. The Founders were not writing a document just for those in the American colonies, but for all people who sought liberty. This promise of freedom, and the protection of the rights afforded us by our Creator, is what separates the United States from every other nation on earth.

For generations, people seeking a better life have left their home countries and everything they owned or knew there to come to America. People have risked death to escape tyranny to gain the protection of God-given rights that enables liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is a blessing worth dying to attain and defend and no other country provides so much opportunity to so many.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” This is the welcoming message the Statue of Liberty gave to the thousands who came through the “golden” doors of Ellis Island. Today, the golden door to America seems closed.

America remains the place for those seeking a better life. Unfortunately, our policies of the last few decades have made getting here legally nearly impossible, and created an incentive for people to come illegally. This creates conflict and resentment, and the conflict builds to the point that otherwise rational and generous people forget that America is more than just a country, but an ideal as well. Rather than embracing those willing to risk their lives to participate in the American dream, some shout that they “must go back.”

One of our nation’s greatest conservative leaders, Ronald Reagan, envisioned a different America. In his final address to the nation from the Oval office he spoke of the success of America as a place for all to come to enjoy freedom. He saw America as a shining city built upon the rocks and overflowing with peace and commerce. He saw a strong city with doors wide open to anyone who had the will to enter.

Let us strive to live up to Reagan’s vision of our great country. America can only remain great when its people recognize that those who are willing to risk all, even their life, are worthy inhabitants. They embody the spirit of Winthrop, Jefferson and Reagan through their yearning for the full benefit of their God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Jason LeVecke
Founder, Golden Door Foundation

The Golden Door Foundation is a 501 C3 organization based in Phoenix, Ariz. The foundation is dedicated to promoting and protecting the vision of a free America through education, advocacy and free enterprise solutions. The foundation recognizes the true strength of America lies in the rights of the individuals it governs and supports the spread of liberty, defends it against detractors and works to eradicate tyranny, poverty and oppression wherever they may exist.

Mr. Elder,

I am shocked that you oppose Barack Obama and belong to the Republican Party. We must get over ourselves and realize there is room at the top for everyone and we must get there by helping each other — instead of agreeing with policies and old politics that are proven not to work.

To endorse John McCain, a person who will not make it easier for the underprivileged, is just too much. How can a fellow black American feel this way?

Click Here to read his response.

Building a Wall Against Talent

By George F. Will
Thursday, June 26, 2008; A19

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Fifty years ago, Jack Kilby, who grew up in Great Bend, Kan., took the electrical engineering knowledge he acquired as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois and as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin to Dallas, to Texas Instruments, where he helped invent the modern world as we routinely experience and manipulate it. Working with improvised equipment, he created the first electronic circuit in which all the components fit on a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip.

On Sept. 12, 1958, he demonstrated this microchip, which was enormous, not micro, by today’s standards. Whereas one transistor was put in a silicon chip 50 years ago, today a billion transistors can occupy the same “silicon real estate.” In 1982 Kilby was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, where he is properly honored with the likes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.

If you seek his monument, come to Silicon Valley, an incubator of the semiconductor industry. If you seek (redundant) evidence of the federal government’s refusal to do the creative minimum — to get out of the way of wealth creation — come here and hear the talk about the perverse national policy of expelling talented people.

Modernity means the multiplication of dependencies on things utterly mysterious to those who are dependent — things such as semiconductors, which control the functioning of almost everything from cellphones to computers to cars. “The semiconductor,” says a wit who manufactures them, “is the OPEC of functionality, except it has no cartel power.” Semiconductors are, like oil, indispensable to the functioning of many things that are indispensable. Regarding oil imports, Americans agonize about a dependence they cannot immediately reduce. Yet their nation’s policy is the compulsory expulsion or exclusion of talents crucial to the creativity of the semiconductor industry that powers the thriving portion of our bifurcated economy. While much of the economy sputters, exports are surging, and the semiconductor industry is America’s second-largest exporter, close behind the auto industry in total exports and the civilian aircraft industry in net exports.

The semiconductor industry’s problem is entangled with a subject about which the loquacious presidential candidates are reluctant to talk — immigration, specifically that of highly educated people. Concerning whom, U.S. policy should be: A nation cannot have too many such people, so send us your PhDs yearning to be free.

Instead, U.S. policy is: As soon as U.S. institutions of higher education have awarded you a PhD, equipping you to add vast value to the economy, get out. Go home. Or to Europe, which is responding to America’s folly with “blue cards” to expedite acceptance of the immigrants America is spurning.

Two-thirds of doctoral candidates in science and engineering in U.S. universities are foreign-born. But only 140,000 employment-based green cards are available annually, and 1 million educated professionals are waiting — often five or more years — for cards. Congress could quickly add a zero to the number available, thereby boosting the U.S. economy and complicating matters for America’s competitors.

Suppose a foreign government had a policy of sending workers to America to be trained in a sophisticated and highly remunerative skill at American taxpayers’ expense, and then forced these workers to go home and compete against American companies. That is what we are doing because we are too generic in defining the immigrant pool.

Barack Obama and other Democrats are theatrically indignant about U.S. companies that locate operations outside the country. But one reason Microsoft opened a software development center in Vancouver is that Canadian immigration laws allow Microsoft to recruit skilled people it could not retain under U.S. immigration restrictions. Mr. Change We Can Believe In is not advocating the simple change — that added zero — and neither is Mr. Straight Talk.

John McCain’s campaign Web site has a spare statement on “immigration reform” that says nothing about increasing America’s intake of highly educated immigrants. Obama’s site says only: “Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should.” “Where we can”? We can now.

Solutions to some problems are complex; removing barriers to educated immigrants is not. It is, however, politically difficult, partly because this reform is being held hostage by factions — principally the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — insisting on “comprehensive” immigration reform that satisfies their demands. Unfortunately, on this issue no one is advocating change we can believe in, so America continues to risk losing the value added by foreign-born Jack Kilbys.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Univision 33 aired three news casts illustrating racial profiling abuses Respeto has helped investigate and work to resolve. Over 50 volunteers staffed the phone lines and heard stories of everything from wage theft to robbery and even more serious crimes against the immigrant community.

Margarita V. Garcia
My Turn
Apr. 22, 2008 12:00 AM

Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s helicopter is gone and his horses’ droppings have hardened, but his two-day Guadalupe stint has a familiar smell.

It was 1997 and hoping to save face from their disastrous roundup in Chandler, immigration officials swept into Guadalupe. Saying town officials solicited their help, immigration officials posed for every camera and spoke clearly into every microphone.

Despite criticisms from Latino leaders, Guadalupe’s mayor and council held their ground supporting the feds. So serious was the situation that Sheriff Joe himself dispatched deputies to protect our mayor. But in the end, nothing - nada - but a good show for more inept immigration officials.

Fast-forward 11 years. Enter Sheriff Joe. Except for the invitation, the stage is the same but the production was much better and the main character more rehearsed and qualified.

There he is, the star of the show, so certain that his Latin American and Drug Enforcement Administration experience is a perfect fit for stomping out Guadalupe’s problems.

The main character is billed as:

• Someone respected and envied by his peers for developing an extensive intelligence network by working with our neighboring cities, three school districts and the Yaqui Indian Tribe.

• Someone who works freely and independently without oversight from pesky town managers or citizen commissions.

• Someone whose community policing and crime rates would quell even the loudest of mayors and Latino activists.

• Someone whose herolike influence on our youth would cause a mass movement to careers in law enforcement.

• Someone who would never allow almost 1,000 backlogged warrants to exist in his town.

• Someone who enforces the law but epitomizes a compassionate conservative.

Surely, Guadalupe’s criminal element is no match for a lawman of such magnitude. But again, nada.

Instead, in reality, we have a Maricopa County sheriff who is proud that he scared away a dozen kids from getting confirmed by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted and caused the other 60 to focus on him instead of God.

If Guadalupe’s sweeps proved anything, it is that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has been in our tiny 420-acre community for more than 20 years but has never become a part of it.

As for “America’s toughest sheriff,” he still holds the honor of being Guadalupe’s most powerful and ineffective politico ever.

The writer is a Guadalupe Town Council member. She has lived in the town since 1960.

PHOENIX — The mayor wants the FBI to investigate whether the local county sheriff has violated any civil rights laws with his recent high-profile crackdowns on illegal immigrants.

The “saturation patrols” have drawn protests from civil rights and immigrant-rights advocates, but they have drawn support from backers of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and from people who believe the government hasn’t done enough against illegal immigration.

In an April 4 letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Mayor Phil Gordon asked the agency and the Justice Department’s civil rights division to examine what he called discriminatory harassment and improper stops, searches, and arrests by sheriff’s deputies in Maricopa County, which encompasses the metropolitan area.

“Over the past few weeks, Sheriff Arpaio’s actions have infringed on the civil rights of our residents,” Gordon wrote. “They have put our residents’ well-being, and the well-being of law enforcement officers, at risk.”

Justice Department officials said they would review Gordon’s letter but declined to comment further.

Arpaio said it’s ironic that Gordon wrote the letter the same day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials observed his deputies arresting residents and illegal immigrants in the town of Guadalupe and approved of the sheriff’s work.

“I think the mayor is disconnected from the people he represents and he doesn’t get the point,” Arpaio said Saturday. “Now he’s going to Washington to confuse the issue and try to get the public against me.”

The mayor “is degrading my office and my deputies by insinuating that they’re violating all these civil laws. We don’t profile,” the sheriff said.

In the past month, sheriff’s deputies and trained volunteers have gone into neighborhoods with large Hispanic populations, stopping people for routine traffic violations and asking some of them about their immigration status. Dozens of illegal immigrants have been detained.

ICE officials say Arpaio is not violating the formal agreement he has with their office that allows sheriff’s deputies to enforce immigration laws.

Last week, the Arizona Ecumenical Council and American Jewish Committee issued a joint letter saying the patrols “evoked a ‘police state’ atmosphere” and led to “detainment on the basis of a racial profile and dehumanization of innocent people.”

They were joined Friday by the Arizona chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, which echoed calls for a Justice Department investigation.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Casey Newton and JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 29, 2008 12:00 AM

After weeks of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio criticizing Phoenix for not taking a harder stance against illegal immigrants, Mayor Phil Gordon struck back Friday, saying the sheriff’s “made-for-TV stunts” could endanger police and spur violence among protesters.

Speaking at a luncheon at the Phoenix Convention Center honoring civil-rights leader Cesar Chavez, Gordon blasted Arpaio’s latest roundup of illegal immigrants in northeast Phoenix, saying that the sheriff acted in a way “that deliberately sets the stage for shouting matches, confrontations or worse.”

“That’s not acceptable behavior for anyone, let alone someone whose job is to help make our community safer,” Gordon said.

The speech was a rare instance of an Arizona official publicly criticizing the popular sheriff, who has a reputation for retaliating against his critics.

Arpaio fought back hours later by sending his forces back out to Phoenix streets and having a press conference his own, accusing Gordon of insulting the business people who Arpaio says called on him to conduct sweeps throughout Phoenix looking for illegal immigrants.

“Not only is he insulting the sheriff and my organization, he’s insulting all these business people who signed it,” Arpaio said, referring to a petition asking him to intervene. “He’s just repeating what all his pro-immigrant friends are saying.”

The mayor’s remarks highlighted actions by the sheriff that Gordon believes endanger Phoenix police investigations and encourage racial profiling. His speech seemed certain to escalate a conflict between City Hall and the Sheriff’s Office over the proper role of the local authorities in enforcing immigration laws.

It also drew cheers from some Hispanics who accused the mayor of bowing to political pressure last year after he called on Phoenix police to play a more active role in enforcing immigration laws.

Gordon’s impassioned 10-minute address came a day after a press release from Arpaio’s office promoted the movement of his raids from 36th Street and Thomas Road to Cave Creek and Bell roads.

“While businesses there are receiving little help from the city of Phoenix, patriotic motorcycle groups such as the Freedom Riders, Riders USA and Riders Against Illegal Immigration came to their rescue and, at least for a time, helped reduce crime,” the release said.

Arpaio said he was asked for help from businesses that were frustrated about the lack of action from Phoenix police. In contrast, Gordon characterized the sheriff’s raids as naked acts of racial profiling.

“Don’t say you’re going after murderers when you’re not,” Gordon said. “Don’t call it crime suppression when it isn’t. And don’t pass the buck to 10 business owners.”

He suggested that Arpaio stop rounding up Hispanics who commit traffic violations and instead pursue “dangerous criminals.”

“If he really wants to fight crime, he should start rounding up dangerous criminals who have outstanding felony warrants issued for them,” Gordon said. “There are thousands of outstanding warrants in this county. How long are those going to stay piled up on his desk?”

More roundups planned

Arpaio said he has no plans to change his tactics.

“What should change?” he said. “What (Gordon) wants us to do is stop coming to Phoenix and stop picking up illegals.”

The sheriff says more enforcement efforts are planned, though he refused to elaborate. Arpaio flatly denied the notion that any future crime-suppression efforts in Phoenix would be retaliation for Gordon’s pointed remarks.

“The Phoenix police ought to come out here and clean up this neighborhood, and then we wouldn’t have to come out here,” he said. “All the politicians, they’re using scare tactics not only to get me to stop but to get more protesters out here.”

Those protesters have hurt Randy Gerber’s business.

Day laborers at a nearby gas station were bothering his potential customers, said Gerber, who manages a Purcell Western States Tire on the corner of Cave Creek and Bell roads.

“It wasn’t really a crime thing; it was just annoying my customers,” he said. “Our company is so focused on customer service that we can’t sacrifice anything.”

In the past two days, Arpaio’s roundups have netted at least 43 people. He said that at least 23are suspected to be in the country illegally.

‘Our mayor is back’

The mayor’s remarks had the potential to win back support from the city’s Hispanic community, which waned after Gordon came out against the Phoenix Police Department’s policy for handling illegal immigrants.

Gordon convened a panel to re-write the policy so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is notified whenever someone suspected of a criminal act is believed to be in the country illegally. Some Hispanics worried the new policy would result in Phoenix police organizing raids similar to Arpaio’s.

Gordon’s speech drew a standing ovation from the more than 500 attendees.

“Our mayor is back,” Councilman Michael Nowakowski said afterward. “That’s what I was hearing in the audience within the Hispanic community - that this is the Phil Gordon we know, that stands up for human rights.”

Paul Chavez, a son of Cesar Chavez, called Gordon “my hero” after the speech. He likened Arpaio’s campaign against illegal immigrant to the Red Scare of the 1950s.

“During the McCarthy era, there was a senator out there bullying people,” Chavez said, referring to Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. “Then Edward R. Murrow stood up and said, ‘Enough is enough.’ That’s what the mayor did today. He said what was right, not what was politically popular.”

The mayor called on Valley residents to take a stand against the roving crackdowns.

“I call upon everyone in this room - especially the non-Hispanics in this room - to speak out,” Gordon said. “Make your voices heard.”

Thank you, Veronica. Thank you, Governor Napolitano, for being here and for sharing your eloquent words with us.

As I look around this room, I see some of my very best friends. And many of my long-time friends. And I know that on December 3 of last year, when I asked our Police Department to review its internal policy — some of you were frustrated. But you stayed with me – and I thank you. I am still one of the most fortunate guys in town to have you as my friends.

I’m always honored to be at this wonderful event that celebrates an American hero. In some ways, it’s hard to believe that – all these years after Cesar Chavez stood up for the farm workers with such courage, conviction and eloquence – we are still struggling against very real issues of race and discrimination and injustice in this country. And sadly, in our own city.

I had prepared some remarks that were in keeping with your broad theme of education. But yesterday, something happened that moved me to give a different speech today. Though it’s still about education.

Last night, the Sheriff communicated with the law enforcement professionals of our community like he communicates with most everyone – by issuing a press release. He announced that his 200 volunteer posse members would be “migrating north” to crack down on illegal aliens. “Migrating North”. That’s the phrase he used – intentionally mocking the language of the hard-working migrant workers who we honor and celebrate today. He says he’s doing this because 10 business owners – including a pawn shop and a biker store — asked him to. And who helped cirulate those 10 signatures to deliver to the Sheriff? A self-described Neo-Nazi.

The Sheriff worded his news release in such a way — by naming groups of “bikers” who agree with him and will show up to support him – that deliberately sets the stage for shouting matches, confrontations or worse.

That’s not acceptable behavior for anyone, let alone someone whose job is to help make our community safer.

Last week, he did the same thing. He sent 200 posse members into a different Phoenix neighborhood. Why? Listen to this quote, “We lock up murderers, we lock up everybody. We’re here for crime suppression, and we’re going to lock up everybody.”

But the posse didn’t lock up murderers. They locked up brown people with broken tail lights. How does that make our community safer? It doesn’t. What does that add to our community discussion on diversity and justice? Nothing.
He calls this being tough. He calls it crime suppression. It is neither.

Those of us in this room today may disagree, from time to time, on some issues. But not often, and NOT on this issue.

While the Sheriff was arresting mothers and fathers for minor civil offenses, the Phoenix Police Department was doing a different kind of roundup.
Last week, the Phoenix Police Department went into a neighborhood that had been taken over by gang members and drug pushers. They arrested 42 criminals who were charged with 562 felony counts. Their bond is too high to post, and the neighbors have their neighborhood back.

It was, by any measure, a big roundup. Certainly for Phoenix. And THESE are the roundups that make sense and make us safer. THIS is the kind of roundup local police SHOULD be doing — going after the worst of the worst – at the neighborhood level. And getting dangerous criminals off the streets.

Today, I say once again to the Sheriff what I’ve said all week – if he really feels compelled to act tough, and if he really wants to impact crime, he should do what Phoenix PD, DPS, the FBI, Mesa PD and every other police agency does – with each other. Go after criminals – not a teenager driving with a broken tail light.

If he really wants to fight crime, he should start rounding up dangerous criminals who have outstanding felony warrants issued for them. There are thousands of outstanding warrants in this County. How long are those going to stay piled up on his desk?

That would make us all safer.

But these made-for-TV stunts of his are putting Phoenix and Federal undercover Officers, who are working that same area, at great risk. And his own volunteer posse faces serious risks from serious criminals.

All in the name of broken tail lights — on the cars of brown drivers.

The Sheriff should at least be candid about it. Don’t say you’re going after murderers when you’re not. Don’t call it crime suppression when it isn’t. And don’t pass the buck to 10 business owners when thousands of others elected him to actually make our community safer.

I call upon everyone in this room – and especially the non-hispanics in this room – to speak out. Make your voices heard.

As Cesar Chavez said, “It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we use our limited time on this earth. It is an awesome opportunity.”

Most of us have been grabbing that opportunity for decades. But now is a good time to re-dedicate ourselves. Let’s do that today. Let each of us renew our resolve to teach our children, and to practice in our own actions, the most simple of lessons. That everyone wants to be heard … everyone wants to be respected. That all cultures share a common world – and human needs that bind us together. We share a common destiny to recognize ourselves in all people. We must learn to create a world in which people of all cultures are treated with respect.

Let’s focus on what we all want – solutions to challenges …
ways to make things work better than they currently are.

Can we continue the work of Cesar Chavez? Can we help fulfill the compassion of Robert Kennedy? Can we all share the Dream of Martin Luther King?
You know the answer.

Yes We Can.

Thank you, and God Bless you all.

Michael Kiefer
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 25, 2008 12:00 AM

Despite public perception and stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws in recent months in Maricopa County, undocumented immigrants are not charged with a disproportionate number of crimes in Maricopa County.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, only 10 percent of the people booked into county jails are subject to ICE holds, meaning that they will be turned over to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency when their cases are resolved.

The number corresponds closely to the estimated percentage of illegal immigrants thought to live in Maricopa County.

The Sheriff’s Office made an agreement with ICE last spring that allows specially trained sheriff’s deputies and detention officers to evaluate the immigration status of people they arrest. From that time to the end of 2007, 7,700 out of 76,000 people booked into Maricopa County jails, or just over 10 percent, had ICE holds.

A November 2007 report by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that favors immigration control, estimated there are 579,000 undocumented immigrants in Arizona, or 9 percent of the state’s population. The concentration of undocumented immigrants is thought to be higher in metropolitan Phoenix.

Politicians, including Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, have tried to make a connection between crime and illegal immigration.

At a November news conference, Thomas said, “We continue to see the link between our crime rate in the Valley and illegal immigrants. We continue to have a serious violent-crime problem in Arizona, which is directly related to our border situation.”

On Friday, Thomas informed The Republic that he had discussed the question sufficiently in the past and then grudgingly issued a statement.

“The link between crime and illegal immigration is well known and was recognized by the 78 percent of Arizonans who voted for Proposition 100 in 2006,” it read.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who says he is the only one who enforces immigration laws, did not respond. His public-information officers said late Friday that the office had not reviewed the statistics provided by a chief deputy, who helps oversee the jails.

‘Inconvenient truth’

But the statistics do not bear out that “well-known link.”

Mesa Police Chief George Gascon has been criticized for publicly saying that immigrants do not commit a disproportionate number of crimes.

“Unfortunately, it seems to be an inconvenient truth, because there are so many people making this the central point of a political campaign and a central point of their own political agendas,” he said. “The fact continues to remain that undocumented people here in this country do not commit crimes at any greater rate than any other segment of the population.”

Gascon was quick to add that illegal immigration is indeed a major issue for Arizona and the U.S., but that it does not overlap with the state’s crime problems as neatly as some would like to think.

“Unquestionably we have an illegal immigration problem, and unquestionably it needs to be fixed,” Gascon said. “The problem is when you try to apply the wrong fix. When you start using your resources and applying them based on faulty assumptions or misinformation, then you’re going to be wasting resources and you’re also going to lead people to believe that you’re fixing something when the reality is that you’re not fixing anything.”

Numbers unchanged

Last April, The Republic analyzed available data from the Arizona Department of Corrections and Maricopa County jails and determined that 10 percent to 11 percent of the inmates were undocumented immigrants. But the information available from the jail was not based on federal immigration databases.

At the time, Arpaio was just entering his agreement with ICE, which gave his deputies access to those databases, and he vowed to keep accurate numbers for the future.

According to sheriff’s Deputy Chief Jack MacIntyre, who provided the 2007 numbers, the program was up and running by late May, and by year’s end had identified 7,762 ICE holds. From June 1 to Dec. 31, there were a total of 76,203 people booked into the jails.

“There would probably be fewer ICE holds if it weren’t for laws tailor-made for the undocumented,” said defense attorney Antonio Bustamante, referring to the state’s recently passed human-smuggling laws and laws making it a felony to possess counterfeit or forged identification cards. There are hundreds of undocumented immigrants held in jail without bond as they await trial on those charges.

The Sheriff’s Office also keeps track of the average daily population for ICE holds, which for 2007 was 17 percent of the jail population. The higher number can be largely attributed to Proposition 100, the law that denies bond to undocumented immigrants who are charged with Class 4 or lower felonies. Although U.S. citizens and foreigners who are in the country legally are released on bail, the undocumented immigrants aren’t, and their numbers accrue.

On Feb. 12, the Sheriff’s Office also released statistics regarding the number of people it said it interviewed - 40,000 - and ascertained that 25 percent were here illegally.

On further inquiry, The Republic learned that the sheriff’s specialized immigration control unit interviewed 43,895 people over the past 10 months; 9,556, or 21.8 percent, were deemed illegal, according to spokeswoman Lisa Allen.