PHOENIX ARIZONA - Authorities say an illegal immigrant suspected of stealing the identity of a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy was arrested Wednesday night and booked into jail on several charges of aggravated identity theft.


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This comes two days after Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced a new program requiring his 900 sworn deputies to attend training on the enforcement of federal and state immigration laws. "The irony is that now my own deputy sheriff, who's a victim of illegal immigration, is going to be trained to enforce federal and state immigration laws," Arpaio said.

Loebardo Estrada-Robles, 31, allegedly used the Social Security number and driver's license of the deputy to obtain construction jobs.

The deputy alerted detectives after he received notice from the Social Security Administration that he owed $2,354 in taxes for employment at two different construction companies in the Valley.

"That made us suspicious because he doesn't work at a construction company — he's a deputy sheriff," Arpaio said.

The construction companies identified Estrada-Robles, who was deported in 2004, as the man using the deputy's name, Arpaio said.

After obtaining a search warrant for Estrada-Robles' residence near 60th Avenue and Osborn Road, deputies seized several other forms of identification, including permanent residence cards with several different names, all containing Estrada-Robles' photo, Arpaio said.

This incident demonstrates one of the ugly side effects of illegal immigration in Arizona, Arpaio said.

"It's not only an immigration problem, it's an identity theft problem that can reach anybody," he said, adding that in a recent bust of 332 illegal immigrants, two out of three had false identification belonging to a U.S. citizen.

He also emphasized the near impossibility of fully protecting oneself against identity theft, a crime Arpaio said would make just about anyone angry.

"They're flashing your names around, your social security — who knows what they're doing with it, these bad guys," he said.