How to get run out of town
/ Filed in: General
But critics have said the hotline, which began operation July 10, would lead to racial profiling. Latino activists have asked for the hotline to be shutdown.
The sheriff's office anticipates the controversy to grow with the rolling billboards. Its press release announced Sunday's event as "a move that is certain to inflame illegal immigration activists."
Arpaio said he used money recovered from fraud investigations to pay for the truck paint jobs. "We had a problem because we were having trouble getting the number out to the public," Arpaio said.
And yet, Arpaio said, the hotline has received nearly 2,000 calls since its launch, prompting the arrest of 85 suspects.
The vans and semi trucks, which transport food to county jails, have been used to advertise other hotlines, including one to report animal cruelty and another to report deadbeat parents who don't pay court-ordered child support. Now they are emblazoned with the message: Help Sheriff Joe Arpaio fight illegal immigration and trafficking.
Arpaio said he is responding to national frustration over immigration policy.
"I'm doing what the federal government should be doing," he said. "These will be driving the highways and byways of the county."
Of his critics, Arpaio said, "I hope they see it (the hotline ads) on the hour, every hour. This is my answer to them."
Critics could not be reached for comment Sunday for their reaction.
"The irony is that they vans, I presume, will pick up the very illegal immigrants we're trying to get," he said.
Arpaio rejected criticism that the trucks would lead to racial profiling, saying, "I don't see where Italy or Iraq or Mexico is listed on these signs. Do you?"
He also railed against critics who likened him to a member of the Klu Klux Klan and have started four different hotlines to report any suspected discrimination.
"My opponents have to have four hotlines to complain about me. I have just one," he said.
