Sheriff: Phoenix car wash hit in immigration raid (Arizona Republic)

Sheriff: Phoenix car wash hit in immigration raid

by Sherry Anne Rubiano - Jun. 13, 2009 10:07 AM
The Arizona Republic

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has arrested 14 suspected illegal immigrants who worked at a car wash at 30th Street and Indian School Road in Phoenix.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said 12 employees at Lindstrom Family Auto Wash had phony IDs and will be booked into county jail.

Two others were arrested for being suspected illegal immigrants and will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Arpaio said.

The Sheriff's Office had been investigating the car wash for about a year. They received a tip from someone working at the car wash that the business had been employing illegal immigrants, Arpaio said.

Deputies served search warrants at the business and at employees' homes Saturday morning.

Arpaio said deputies and posse members surrounded the car wash. Several employees tried to get away by jumping on the roof, but no one was able to escape, he said.

The business owners are not being detained, and the Sheriff's Office is looking into whether the owners knowingly hired undocumented immigrants, Arpaio said.

Arpaio said this is the seventh business his office has investigated for breaking the state's employer-sanctions law. The Sheriff's Office has arrested 248 people for employer sanctions violations, he said.

Arpaio said his office will continue to enforce illegal immigration laws, regardless of what politicians, the Justice Department or Congress say about him.

"This is my answer to all of them," he said. "I'm not backing down."