About 30 people waved banners and chanted outside the Wells Fargo building Friday, protesting the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office lease of two floors of the downtown Phoenix building.

Friday’s protest was part of an ongoing effort petitioning the move.

One-third of the protestors were ASU students.

Gregorio Montes de Oca, a political science and Chicano studies junior, said he went to the protest because he sees the county’s lease agreement for the 526,847-square-foot space usually used by corporate executives as wasteful.

“Arpaio is using the floors of the Wells Fargo building as his personal office and using taxpayer money to pay for it,” Montes de Oca said.

The pro-immigration movement Puente and the Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network organized the protest.

Protestors said they take issue with the amount of rent being paid for the two floors of the Wells Fargo building.

Protesters also said the lease agreement, which ends Sept. 30, connects the building’s namesake, Wells Fargo, to Arpaio’s actions against illegal immigrants.

Sylvia Herrera, a member of the Puente movement, said the sheriff’s office has violated civil rights by racially profiling Hispanics while conducting neighborhood sweeps to round up illegal immigrants.

Montes de Oca said he is not a member of Puente, but he believes in the movement’s push to evict the sheriff from the building. Arpaio should be working out of a county building, he said.

County spokesman Richard de Uriarte said the space is currently renting for $50,000 a month or $600,000 for the year. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office also has two floors in the Wells Fargo building carrying a similar price tag, he said.

Protestor Annette Sexton-Ruiz, a member of the Puente Movement, said the sheriff’s office and county attorney should not be spending so much money for the spaces during a time of budget restrains.

“The county is renting these buildings when there are other county buildings that are empty,” Sexton-Ruiz said.

Maricopa County Real Estate Manager Dennis Lindsey said he was unaware of such buildings.

“[The Wells Fargo building] was the best cost option for the county and cost the city the least amount to be at that location,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey also told The State Press that the county and Wells Fargo signed a five-year renewal option in February.

Unaware that the lease had been renewed, Puente member Salvador Reza, who helped spearhead the protests, said the next phase is convincing Wells Fargo customers to boycott the financial institution.

“We will ask people to look for another bank and choose one that better serves our community,” Reza said. “By renting to Sheriff Joe, they are aiding and abetting human rights violations.”

The protests began Sept. 2 and have been held on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. They are to continue into the coming weeks, Reza said.

Herrera said the cause is cross-generational, and that ASU students have been helpful in bringing awareness to the fight against the sheriff’s office.

“The ASU students bring a lot of energy to the movement,” Herrera said. “I’ve known students who have had to take the responsibility as head of household because their mom or dad has been deported.”

Reach the reporter at philip.haldiman@asu.edu.