I have been waiting for this headline to hit for the last couple of years. I don’t claim to know all the details, but whenever someone takes a very high profile, courageous stand as Sheriff Arpaio has on illegal immigration, you have to know that there are forces at work behind the scenes that want to demoralize the members of the pro border law enforcement community and the best way to do that is to go after one of the leaders of the movement. We should all follow this story as it develops and if you see something that I miss, put a link into the open forum weekly post, or any other post, even if it’s off topic.

~~John Cronin~~

CNSNews.com
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona following requests by congressional Democrats and allegations by liberal activists that the department has violated the civil rights of illegal aliens.

Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Robert Scott (D-Va.) requested the investigation, and activists groups such as National Day Laborer Organizer Network and ACORN launched petition drives and rallies in support of the probe.

The investigation focuses on Sheriff Joe Arpaio and dozens of officers under his command who were trained through the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ACCESS), which partners federal and local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. (The Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division is known popularly as ICE.)

In a letter dated March 10, 2009, Loretta Smith, acting assistant attorney general at the DOJ, detailed what her department would be investigating:

“This is to inform you that the United States Department of Justice is commencing an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (â€