Thread: Arpaio Hasn't Done Immigration Patrol in 4 Months

Arpaio Hasn't Done Immigration Patrol in 4 Months

Updated: Friday, 24 Dec 2010, 10:45 AM MST
Published : Friday, 24 Dec 2010, 10:09 AM MST

By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press

PHOENIX - Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has gone more than four months without launching one of his special traffic patrols that target people who are in the country illegally.

Critics say Arpaio backed off his crime and immigration sweeps because he is facing intense scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department in a civil rights investigation into his immigration efforts and doesn't want to give investigators any help in making their case.

Arpaio angrily disputed that explanation and said his office has been busy lately with other duties, such as preparing his volunteer posse members to patrol mall parking lots during the holiday season.

"People are saying that I backed down, that I'm not doing the crime suppression operations? Because of what? That's wrong," said Arpaio, using his office's own terminology to describe the sweeps. "I am not going to say that I'm going to go out and do one tonight, but that's wrong."

The sweeps -- the sheriff's most visible immigration enforcement tactic -- have drawn heavy criticism from civil rights advocates who accused the police agency of racially profiling countless Latinos.

Arpaio denies the allegation, saying deputies approach people only when they have probable cause to believe people had committed crimes.

The U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation ofArpaio's office in early 2009 on allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures. The federal agency also isexamining the sheriff's jail policies that discriminate against people with limited English skills.

Arpaio, who said the investigation centers on his immigration efforts, maintained his office hasn't done anything wrong in responding to his county's immigration woes.

During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city -- in some cases heavily Latino areas -- to seek out traffic violators and arrest other alleged lawbreakers. Half of the 1,032 people arrested in the 17 sweeps since early 2008 have been illegal immigrants.

The civil rights investigation is separate from a federal grand jury that has been investigating Arpaio on abuse of power allegations since at least January 2010.

The sheriff's last immigration sweep was launched in late July as a judge let parts of Arizona's new immigration law take effect and blocked the law's most controversial sections from being enforced.

This pause is among the longest Arpaio has taken between sweeps. The longest pause was for six months in the first half of 2009.

The latest pause, however, stands out because Arpaio vowed to continue enforcing immigration laws after the federal government launched the civil rights investigation and filed a lawsuit against him in early September accusing the sheriff of refusing to hand over records to investigators.

"He did change his pattern. Like a little boy who got a spanking, he is on his best behavior," said Lydia Guzman, president of the Phoenix-based Hispanic civil rights group Somos America.

Salvador Reza, an organizer for the Puente Movement, an immigrant rights group, said Arpaio hasn't done an immigration sweep lately for fear that activists armed with video cameras will capture footage of deputies racially profiling Latinos.

"He doesn't want to expose himself in any way," Reza said.

Arpaio said he would be ready to launch another sweep if the need arises, such as a rash of violent crimes in a given area. He said he plans to launch another sweep at an unspecified date and place in January.

During the last four months, Arpaio said he has continued raiding businesses in investigations of employers suspected of hiring illegal immigrants and of illegal immigrants who use fake documents to get jobs. He said his deputies doing routine traffic patrols also have continued to arrest smugglers transporting illegal immigrants through metropolitan Phoenix in recent months.

In the records-seeking lawsuit arising out of the civil rights investigation, the federal government accused Arpaio's office of refusing requests for documents and denying investigators access to his jails. The sheriff's office said it has cooperated in the investigation by providing the Justice Department with records and access to its jails, noting that federal investigators toured its jails last month.

The Justice Department declined to comment on whether its scrutiny of Arpaio led the sheriff to back away from his immigration sweeps.

Arpaio said he ran several sweeps after the federal civil rights investigation began and said people shouldn't read anything into why he hasn't launched one lately.

"So the lawsuit is still in federal court, but why would that stop me from doing my job?" Arpaio said.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/im ... x-12242010

This man has been under intense scrutiny and has been harassed daily by our federal government and the open borders, pro-illegal invader advocates who do not want this man to do his job because it will result in hispanic (it’s only the hispanic groups and their supporters who seem to making all the noise, objecting to his efforts) illegal invaders being arrested and deported!

I'm confident he was something planned in the very near future.

Since he's training citizen posse members for his team, I bet the next set of sweeps will be awesome, and all his opponents will be squealing like little racist pigs.

Keep up the good work Sheriff Joe. We've all got your back.

These folks are always trying to keep this man from doing his job!