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NC sheriff apologizes for immigrant comments
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Published: September 8, 2008
Updated: 09/08/2008 08:30 am
SMITHFIELD
A North Carolina sheriff has apologized for calling illegal immigrants "trashy" and saying the growing Hispanic population in his county was "breeding like rabbits".
Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell issued the apology after the News & Observer of Raleigh printed comments in a Sunday article, the newspaper said Monday. Bizzell also told the newspaper, "Everywhere you look it's like little Mexico around here."
Bizzell said in a one-paragraph statement that it wasn't his intention to make broad statements that reflected on legal and law-abiding Hispanics.
But the apology wasn't enough for a Hispanic advocate. Tony Asion is executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group El Pueblo and said the comments made him so angry he had to stop reading the article.
"I don't want his apology, I want his badge," said Asion, a native of Cuba. "As a 20-year veteran of the Delaware State Police force, I resent the fact that he's even a cop."
Bizzell said his comments, made during interviews for a series of stories, were influenced by his anger over the death of a boy in April who was killed by a drunken driver who previously had been convicted of driving while impaired.
"I obviously let my anger over this crime flash during the N&O interview," Bizzell said. "Since then I have worked with federal authorities to deport illegal immigrants that commit crimes because these criminals ultimately have a negative impact on all the good law-abiding residents in Johnston County."
"This is not a reflection on all immigrants as legal immigration is both wanted and needed."
Bizzell is a former president of the N.C. Sheriffs' Association and worked to make North Carolina an aggressive state for deporting illegal immigrants.
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