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| Cochise County's top cop takes leadership role on immigration |
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| Written by Devlin Houser |
| Friday, 24 September 2010 20:47 |
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When he began his college career 40 years ago, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever had little interest in law enforcement. He had planned to teach high school English literature. But because of what he describes as a “perfect storm,” Dever is now arguably the most vociferous advocate lobbying for tighter border security. After graduating from high school in his hometown of Saint David, Dever spent two years doing mission work in Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama and Costa Rica, where he learned to speak fluent Spanish. He met his wife in college, and the two lived together in a small apartment in a San Diego mortuary, keeping grounds in exchange for rent and utilities. In March 1976, after his first son was born, Dever’s uncle and then Cochise County sheriff called and offered him a job as deputy sheriff. Two decades later, he was elected sheriff, and is now serving his fourth term. He and his wife raised six sons in Saint David. Dever is on the National Sheriffs’ Association board of directors, and in September was elected chair of the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Coalition, which was formed in 2007. The coalition’s goal, Dever said, is to increase communication among sheriffs in the border region and lobby Congress for tighter border security. Dever, along with Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, is also the poster child on bordersheriffs.com, a website soliciting donations for legal defense in lawsuits by the ACLU and the federal government over Arizona’s SB 1070. The law, if implemented in full, would compel all law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws, though a federal judge froze its most controversial provisions, which are set to go before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. 
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