The East Valley Tribune posted a big scoop on its website tonight. Mesa’s departing police chief, George Gascón, told the paper he was going to be fired by the city after he testified earlier this year before Congress that immigration enforcement should not be the job of local police agencies.
An outspoken critic on immigration issues, Gascón resigned recently to take a job as the police chief in San Francisco, leading to speculation that the politics of Arizona had taken its toll on him. “I was not pressured to resign,” said Gascón, whose last day in Mesa is July 31. “I was told I would get terminated.”