Mayor, wife allege racial profiling in Cave Creek

Amelia Blanco remembers when she first saw the truck.

It started following her from Loop 101 and Cave Creek Road, shadowing her up to Carefree Highway, and up to her driveway off New River Road, where she lives with husband, Cave Creek Mayor Vincent Francia.

Blanco, an American citizen of Mexican descent, may have been a victim of racial profiling last Friday, according to Francia, whose town is known for its tough stance on illegal immigration.

Blanco said that 10 minutes after the driver fled her Cave Creek driveway, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies showed up. An unidentified caller had phoned Phoenix's non-emergency phone line complaining that Blanco's license plate was painted and illegible, they said.

Cave Creek Marshal Adam Stein said it is likely the driver saw the license plate and profiled Blanco based on the color of her skin.

"(The caller) said he was witnessing a car that wasn't supposed to be on the road (and) had illegal plates," Stein said.

The Sheriff's Office, which provides law-enforcement services to Cave Creek, emphasized that deputies simply responded to the caller's report of a suspicious vehicle.

"There was no racial profiling involved," sheriff's spokesman Douglas Matteson said.

In the fight against illegal immigration, the question still remains of "how far is too far?"

While the U.S. grapples with immigration issues, real-life circumstances play out in Cave Creek.

To Francia, a line was crossed with his wife.

He claims to have seen the same truck that followed his wife at their house the day after the incident.

Under public pressure from citizens, Cave Creek passed an ordinance in September that aimed to prevent day laborers from gathering in search of employment.

Billed as a safety regulation, the law banned people from soliciting work on town streets.

In March, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups filed a complaint against the ordinance and won.

A federal judge this month permanently banned the town from enforcing the law, ruling it an unconstitutional restriction of free speech.

Opponents said the law would only lead to more racial profiling.

The ACLU has worked to prevent such discrimination, even filing a lawsuit in 2006 against the Arizona Department of Public Safety to curb supposed profiling along state highways.

Blanco, who was born in California and grew up in Mexico, said she doesn't "want to think" of herself as victim of racial prejudice, especially not in Cave Creek.

She said she believes the driver who followed her may have been someone who thought he was "doing good."

"Vincent is concerned it might have been profiling," Blanco said. "I think it is a possibility but it's a very minimal possibility."