Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Speaking At Illinois GOP Event: Immigration Advocates Protest
huffingtonpost.com
Lizzie Schiffman
August 24, 2011

A coalition of Illinois religious, labor- and immigrant-advocacy groups issued a statement Wednesday condemning this weekend’s Kendall County Republican Party Picnic’s chosen speaker, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. The self-proclaimed "Toughest Sheriff in America" has been the center of many civil rights violation investigations, including a current federal probe into alleged racial profiling tactics that began more than two years ago.

Accompanying the announcement was a letter addressed to Illinois Republican officials calling for them to withdraw their invitation to Arpaio or boycott the event based on his “long history of constitutional violations, corruption, and racial discrimination,â€