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Ariz. sheriff praises Murrieta protesters

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The controversial sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County was in Ramona Saturday to weigh in on the increasingly contentious immigration debate, applauding the protesters who blocked busloads of Central Americans in Riverside County this month as “heroes of our country.”

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the standoff outside a Border Patrol processing station in Murrieta helped reignite discussion of U.S. immigration policy. “Until then, nobody was talking about it, nobody was doing anything about it,” he said before a standing room-only crowd of more than 500 supporters packed into the theater at the Ramona Mainstage.

Outside, some two dozen Arpaio opponents stood on the sidewalk with a different message, holding signs and shouting slogans such as “Sheriff Joe, go away, racist bigot KKK.”

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Arpaio at one point approached the protesters, but they continued chanting, drowning him out.

At 82, Arpaio is serving his sixth four-year term as elected sheriff of the county that covers the Phoenix metropolitan area. His unusual tactics have frequently drawn the spotlight, winning both bitter criticism and enthusiastic support.

These include forcing inmates to wear pink underwear and housing them in tents in temperatures that rise above 110 degrees. He has instituted volunteer chain-gangs for females and juvenile inmates. His department is under a court order to enact reforms following a racial profiling lawsuit.

Arpaio came to Ramona at the invitation of a local tea party group, Ramona TEA’d. Sandy Hurlburt, a member of the group’s steering committee, said Arpaio “represents what we believe in: legal immigration, justice, law, the Constitution.”

Arpaio’s talk, which lasted over an hour and included a question-and-answer session with audience members, drew the largest crowd since the group’s founding five years ago. Supporters drove in from San Diego, El Cajon, Oceanside and Murrieta to hear him speak, and dozens lined up patiently to have Arpaio sign pink boxer shorts purchased for $15 apiece, a fundraiser for the Sheriff’s Posse Foundation.

Addressing the audience from a small stage decorated with American flags, Arpaio spoke without notes as he touched on a range of topics, with immigration a recurring theme. “Mexico is the biggest problem,” Arpaio said, addressing the issue of unprecedented numbers of unaccompanied Central American minors coming to the U.S. border. “Don’t these kids have to go through Mexico? Why don’t they stop them in Mexico?”

Chris Clinkscales, a 53-year-old concrete contractor from Murrieta, helped block the immigrant buses on July 1. “I love what he’s doing with his own state,” he said. “This illegal immigration situation has gone out of hand and we need to stop this.”

As Clinkscales waited inside for Arpaio to speak, the protesters outside decried the sheriff’s presence. “Children are coming to us for help, and we need to help them,” said Laura Kohl, a retired teacher from Escondido. “I don’t want Sheriff Arpaio to think that he can come and be a negative influence in an area that’s already divided over the immigration issue.”

The House of Representatives this week is expected to vote on a package that aims to stem the flow of children from Central America.

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