Rieder: Using suit's proceeds to fund coverage of immigrants

Payback can be brutal.

Back in 2007, Joe Arpaio, the anti-immigrant sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., had two longtime antagonists arrested and jailed. They were Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin, at the time owners of a chain of alternative newspapers, including Phoenix New Times.

The journalists' sin? Publishing details of an incredibly broad subpoena issued by a special prosecutor seeking, among other things, the identities of anyone who read the paper online. The legal battle had begun after the paper had published Arpaio's address.

Lacey and Larkin sued, and after a federal appeals court condemned the arrests and the subpoenas, the two men last year won a $3.75 million settlement from Maricopa County.

And here's how they are going to spend a big chunk of that money, a cool $2 million: establishing a Chair in Borderlands Issues at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. The Lacey-Larkin Chair, which will be announced Tuesday, will anchor a new program in which students will report, write and produce stories on immigration and U.S./Mexico border issues, in both English and Spanish.

In addition to appearing on the Cronkite School's website and Arizona PBS, which the J-school runs, the work will be distributed to a variety of professional news outlets.

Lacey and Larkin have long been champions of Mexican immigrants in Arizona. And they have frequently clashed with Arpaio, a staunch supporter of strict enforcement of immigration laws who styles himself as "America's toughest sheriff." In 2011, the U.S.Justice Department accused Arpaio of "unconstitutional policing" by singling out Latinos for arrest and detention. And a federal judge last year found that the sheriff had engaged in racial profiling in carrying out immigration laws.

Kristin Gilger, associate dean of the Cronkite School who played a key role in bringing the chair to ASU, sees the initiative as "a really fitting way for them to spend the settlement money." And she adds, "There's more than a little, irony, a delicious irony" in the situation.

Lacey and Larkin are appalled by what they see as rampant fear-mongering over immigration and the mistreatment of Latinos. Larkin goes so far as to say that the treatment of Latinos in some instances is "worse than what happened in the American South."

While the two had been donating money from the settlement to immigrant causes, Lacey sees the new program at ASU as a way to "change the dynamic." His passion for the cause is palpable.

"The demonization of migrants is nothing fresh and is an ongoing disgrace that stains our soul,"Lacey says. "It is our intention to focus a light upon our Hispanic neighbors, borders be damned.

"One of the best things about Arizona is its proximity to Mexico. If my children live with the values that drive migrants, I will be a lucky parent."

So how did the idea for the chair at Arizona State come about? Gilger and Lacey had known each other for quite a while through Phoenix journalism circles. Four or five years ago, Lacey approached Gilger about setting up a minority training program at ASU, which Phoenix New Times funded for a couple of years. Lacey also addressed Gilger's freshman journalism class each year about the alternative press.

After Lacey and Larkin sold their papers last year, Gilger and Lacey were having lunch one day, and the associate dean asked the crusading journalist if he had thought about what he would do next and what he'd like his legacy to be.They talked about a variety of things that might work, and Lacey and Larkin quickly settled on the endowed chair.

Academia is not known for its speed, and Lacey was pleasantly surprised by how rapidly Cronkite Dean and ASU Vice Provost Christopher Callahan and Gilger embraced the concept, particularly given that Arpaio, who is in his sixth term, has a substantial base of support in the area.

And the pace won't slow down. Gilger says the J-school will begin its search for the chair, who must be bilingual, in January and plans to launch the program in fall 2015.

Lacey says he and Larkin will be paying close attention.

"We're obsessive meddlers. We're control freaks," Lacey says. "This will be very fulfilling."

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