Presidential trail winds through Pinal
Carson visits Sheriff’s Office, inquires about shooting smugglers from copters
By Sarah Ruf | Maricopa Monitor
FLORENCE — A day after speaking to a crowd of 6,000 at a Phoenix rally, retired neurosurgeon and GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson headed south Wednesday for a visit with Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.
Carson’s camp reached out to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office to schedule a tour, said Mark Clark, the agency’s public information officer, which included a briefing on immigration, drug smuggling and border security from Babeu.
Carson said he wanted to use Wednesday’s trip to “get an idea of what is secure and what isn’t secure, and I’d be very interested in (the sheriff’s) suggestions.”
As front-runner Donald Trump tackles immigration in the press and on the stump, Carson seems to be following that strategy. During his rally Monday night he said that the 14th Amendment, which gives most babies in the U.S. automatic citizenship “doesn’t make any sense.” Wednesday’s visit with Babeu appeared to be a way for Carson to bone up on immigration policies as the issue takes center stage in the fight for the GOP nomination.
