Buz Mills raising funds for sheriffs' SB 1070 defense

Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate and millionaire businessman Buz Mills is taking on a new challenge.

He's focusing his fundraising efforts on helping two Arizona sheriffs defend themselves against lawsuits challenging Arizona's controversial immigration law.

Mills is chairing the Border Sheriffs, a new non-profit organization set up to raise private funds to cover the legal fees of Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, two of the state's 15 county sheriffs named in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil-rights groups.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio also is named as a defendant in a separate lawsuit filed by the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, but he is not part of the Border Sheriffs group. None of the other four Senate Bill 1070 lawsuits name any sheriffs as defendants.

Mills said the goal of the Border Sheriffs is not to defend SB 1070, which he supports as a tool for law enforcement, but to help the sheriffs on the front lines. Cochise County shares about 80 miles of border with Mexico, and Pinal County is a major corridor of travel for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

"Helping them raise funds lets them focus on their main job: protecting Arizonans against this international violence," Mills said.

Mills, who spent $3.2 million of mostly his own money on his gubernatorial campaign before suspending it in July, said he will travel around the country to talk to potential donors about border challenges as well as take donors to the border to see the situation for themselves.

He said he got to know Dever and spend time with him along the border during his campaign. It was that firsthand look that spurred him to get involved, he said.

"I really got to see what's going on down there," he said. "It's another world. We've got serious, serious problems."

He said he met rancher Robert Krentz two weeks before he was murdered, and Mills got to know many other ranchers, farmers and businesspeople in the area.

"You hear all these stories: Ranchers talking about eight or 10 times a day people knocking on their door wanting food or water and the lady of the house lying on the floor with a pistol, praying that they'll go away," he said. "There are people whose homes have been broken into 30 times. This is America. How does that happen?"

He said that sheriffs along Arizona's border don't have the resources to patrol their large counties and deal with the violence of the Mexican cartels. And he said the economic crisis and rising unemployment mean even less money for counties.

"I'm embarrassed and ashamed that our federal and state government don't do more for them," Mills said.

He said his goal as chairman of Border Sheriffs will be to raise awareness as well as money.

"We need to get this issue in front of the public," he said. "SB 1070 has brought national awareness of the issue, but we need to take that national issue and focus in on what's actually going on down there."

The group has raised about $125,000, but Mills said they need about $4 million. Under Internal Revenue Service rules, a non-profit does not have to disclose an itemized list of donations or donor names. Mills said most of the money has come in as small individual donations. Sen. John McCain is reported to be the largest private donor to date, giving $5,000.

The group's website, www.bordersheriffs.com, says funds will cover the legal defense of Dever and Babeu.

Scottsdale attorney Jordan Rose and her law firm are representing Dever.

And while Babeu is working with the group, he is still being represented in the lawsuits by Pinal County Attorney James Walsh.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2010/08/29/20100829arizona-immigration-law-buz-mills.html