Helping Sheriff Joe Out

Here's a real-life case that echoes "Breaking Bad" all too clearly. What do you do to avoid prosecution by Sheriff Joe Arpaio if you are a business in Phoenix that hires large numbers of illegals? Well, you become a heavy contributor to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Memorial Fund:

Here in Maricopa County, we are used to immigration raids Joe Arpaio-style, where deputies swoop in with cameras blazing and arrest a few cleaning ladies or maybe some guy who makes a mean taco.

Now here comes Immigration and Customs Enforcement showing how it should be done, with a sophisticated two-year investigation that has produced a 78-count indictment alleging a company conspiracy to build an illegal workforce.

Danny’s Family Car Wash stands accused of cleaning cars in the dirtiest way possible – by conspiring with immigrants who are here illegally to steal the identities of innocent people.

Thus far, 14 managers and supervisors – including the general manager of operations – have been indicted, with more to come. Whether the conspiracy extends to the owner, Danny Hendon, remains to be seen.

Hendon is well known in law enforcement circles, often using his car washes to raise funds for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Memorial Fund. Curiously, none of Arpaio’s 74 workplace raids have targeted Hendon’s operation.

Where, according to a 2010 ICE audit, nearly half the workforce was suspect.

...If only Arizona’s employer-sanctions law could also be used to go after the root of the problem. But since the Legal Arizona Workers Act became law in 2008, only three employers have been cited for knowingly hiring someone who is here illegally — one of them a water park that was already out of business.