Thread: ICE to conduct audit of Arpaio's office

ICE to conduct audit of Arpaio's office
Focus: Migrant-law enforcement
by Daniel González - Sept. 11, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Federal investigators will conduct an audit later this month of an 18-month-old agreement that gives the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office authority to enforce federal immigration laws.

The audit comes amid allegations that the Sheriff's Office is violating the agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement by targeting day laborers instead of violent criminals and trampling on the civil rights of Latinos.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio maintains his office abides by the agreement and does not violate anyone's rights.
Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of investigations for the Arizona office of ICE, said the audit will be conducted by the agency's internal-affairs unit.

Allen described the audit as a "due-diligence, good-faith effort" to make sure that Arpaio is operating within the confines of the agreement.

Allen said he did not know what had prompted the audit but said he believes Arpaio is in compliance.

Richard Rocha, an ICE spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the audit is part of a "routine inspection" of agreements throughout the country being carried out by ICE, beginning with the largest and oldest agreements.

The agency has already conducted audits of ICE agreements with the Collier County Sheriff's Office in Florida, the Mecklenberg County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina, and the Alabama State Police.

"These are routine. This is not something punitive," Rocha said.

He said ICE believes the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is "acting accordingly within (the agreement)."

Arpaio said he welcomes the inspection.

"We have nothing to worry about," he said. "If there was something wrong, we would fix it, but we haven't found anything wrong."

In February 2007, Arpaio signed an agreement with ICE that allowed 160 deputies and jail officers to receive training that gave them the authority to enforce immigration laws, usually the job of the federal government.

The agreement is the largest of 62 agreements ICE has with law-enforcement agencies across the country.

Since signing the agreement, Arpaio has come under increasing criticism from some elected officials and community leaders who accuse him of violating the agreement.

In July, four U.S. citizens joined a federal lawsuit that claims the Sheriff's Office is targeting Latinos to investigate immigration status by using unfounded traffic stops during a series of crime sweeps.

The suit was first filed in December, based on a legal immigrant's complaint that he was improperly detained by sheriff's deputies for nine hours.

In October, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox wrote a letter to Rep. David Price, D-North Carolina, chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, asking for federal oversight to curtail what she called numerous violations of the agreement.

The letter, signed by nine other local and state elected officials, accused the Sheriff's Office of overstepping the bounds of the agreement.

The letter said the agreement states that the Sheriff's Office is supposed to be using ICE-trained deputies to help ICE bolster immigration enforcement related to violent fugitives, organized crime, gang activity, drug traffickers and pervasive criminal activity in urban areas.

Instead, Arpaio was using the agreement to target day laborers and corn vendors, the letter said.

The letter also accused Arpaio of using racial profiling to question Latinos about their citizenship.

"Many people in the Hispanic community feel that if you are just driving in the neighborhood, he's going to stop you if he sees you are Hispanic by the color of your skin," Wilcox said.

Arpaio has vehemently denied that his deputies profile.

On Wednesday, he accused Wilcox of mischaracterizing ICE's impending review of the agreement.

"It's not an investigation," he said. "Mary Rose is sticking her nose in our business and doing everything she can to keep us from enforcing immigration laws."


Reach the reporter at daniel .gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8312.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... t0911.html

Lookout Joe! Here comes the Bush administration and beneath what they say and present on the surface, they DO NOT WANT YOU ENFORCING THE LAWS THEY FAIL TO ENFORCE!

W

The letter also accused Arpaio of using racial profiling to question Latinos about their citizenship.

"Many people in the Hispanic community feel that if you are just driving in the neighborhood, he's going to stop you if he sees you are Hispanic by the color of your skin," Wilcox said.

Bull. Sheriff Arpaio does not use racial profiling. It just so happens that ALOT of Hispanics are guilty of commiting crimes. And a huge portion of the "Hispanic community" are illegal aliens. Unless a Hispanic person is guilty of a crime or being in the country illegally, there is no reason to worry. IMO Arizona has become so populated with Hispanics that there is at least a 1 in 3 chance of being pulled over when commiting a traffic violation. Thats the odds, NOT racial profiling.