WASHINGTON - Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon escalated his feud with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Tuesday, saying he intends to call on the national media to come to the Valley and observe the sheriff's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Criticizing the sweeps as heavy-handed and abusive, Gordon, said he intends to call a news conference at the National Press Club here in September.

He said he'd like to see a media mobilization comparable to the effort of the dozens of reporters who streamed to Arizona from around the country following the 1976 murder of Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles.

Their effort, which became known as the Arizona Project, produced extensive reporting on organized crime in the state.

"I'm going to say, 'Come like you did for Don Bolles; come to Phoenix and stop this madness,' " said Gordon, who was in town on unrelated city business. "Let's turn the eyes of the nation on this."

Gordon wants to focus attention on the sheriff department's sweeps, in which deputies check vehicles and pedestrians in a search for illegal immigrants. The measures have been widely criticized as a form of racial profiling.

"He (Arpaio) has become the false messiah," Gordon said. "But when the light is shined on him, people will see that he isn't helping to fight illegal immigration and he's just making the situation worse. You've got an individual with a badge and a gun who's breaking the law and abusing his authority."

Arpaio fired back in a telephone interview from Phoenix.

"He doesn't have to call (on the media), because they're here every day," Arpaio said. "I've been on 3,000 national shows as sheriff. I had two different Dutch reporters yesterday. They come all the time. ... I don't need him to be my press agent."

Arpaio said Gordon "just wants to get some press because if he takes me on, he gets his name in the paper."

The mayor accused the sheriff of ham-handed techniques that violate the rights of American citizens caught up in Arpaio's immigration sweeps. He also claimed the sweeps are making immigrants, both legal and illegal, fearful of cooperating with police criminal investigations.

Arpaio rejected the accusations and said his efforts have received broad support from the people of Maricopa County.

"I don't have to defend myself over his vicious comments because he doesn't like me arresting illegal immigrants" said Arpaio, who is seeking his fifth term as sheriff.

He said Gordon is trying to fuel his own political ambitions.

"He wants to be governor," Arpaio said

The Gordon-Arpaio feud is a particularly volatile example of the tensions dividing communities across the country that are frustrated by the inability of Congress to pass immigration reform.

In the absence of a new federal policy, states and local jurisdictions are fashioning their own approaches to enforce immigration law.

Gordon says he favors "comprehensive immigration reform," the term for legislation that attempts to package measures to deal with all the major components of the immigration issue, including border security and what to do about the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country illegally.

This year's two principal presidential candidates, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama favor a comprehensive approach. Both have promised to take up the issue during their first year as president. There is no expectation Congress will take it up this year.