Arpaio to use chain gang at All-Star game

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PHOENIX, July 7 (UPI) -- Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he will employ a chain gang to pick up trash outside Phoenix's Chase Field during the upcoming baseball All-Star game.

Arpaio announced that undocumented immigrant inmates, all convicted of DUI, will join American male and female chains of DUI offenders to send a message about the perils of drunken driving when they clean up refuse outside the stadium next week, The Arizona Republic reported Thursday.

If it raises the question of illegal immigration more than it does the issue of drunken driving, all the better, Arpaio said.

"I would be discriminating against the people here illegally in this country who have been convicted of the same crimes U.S. citizens have been convicted of. Should I say, 'Oh no, you can't be in a chain gang because you're from a different country'?" Arpaio said. "Everything I do, there's a method, whether on punishment or deterrent."

Arpaio has used the strategy before, putting DUI chain gangs along Phoenix streets during Super Bowl XLII and unveiling a neon "vacancy" sign above the controversial Tent City jail before Super Bowl XXX.