Thread: Immigrants demonstrate outside Phoenix courthouse

By Associated Press
Originally published: Jul 24, 2012 - 1:50 pm


Protestors are shown. (Photo: Jim Cross/KTAR)

PHOENIX -- A group of immigrant rights advocates are demonstrating outside a federal courthouse in Phoenix as Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio testifies inside in a civil trial.

Arpaio took the witness stand Tuesday about allegations that his trademark immigration sweeps amounted to racial profiling against Hispanics.

"A day like this has arrived because of the tenacity of the plaintiffs," said Valley attorney Antonio Bustamante.

Meanwhile, some protesters staged a civil disobedience near the courthouse. Four undocumented immigrants were holding a banner that read: "No Papers, No Fear."

The four said they are not afraid to be arrested. However, their demonstration appears to be orchestrated by a national day laborer organization that sent out a statement from the four undocumented immigrants and even provided their biographies.

Arpaio would not be arrested nor fined if found guilty in the case, but activists feel the trial is the first step.

"If he gets out of this one, it's only like a slap on the hand," said Salvador Reza. "It's a civil case. I think his day will come when he is indicted by the feds on criminal charges."

Bustamante said the case is a potential landmark, as it would be the first time an official was found guilty in a judicial decision at for violating the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

Four people were arrested, but Phoenix Police said the arrests were on charges of blocking a thoroughfare and failure to obey a lawful order.

Immigrants demonstrate outside Phoenix courthouse - Phoenix News - KTAR.com

Arizona sheriff shows none of trademark swagger

Source: United States News
Originally published: Jul 24, 2012 - 6:08 pm

PHOENIX (AP) - There were no TV cameras, no scrum of reporters, no protesters- and there was no swagger inside the courtroom when the typically brash Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio took the stand to face critics who say he and his deputies racially profile Hispanics.

Under questioning from lawyers representing a group Latinos who are suing him and his department, Arpaio spoke in a hush, offering that he was suffering from the flu.

He was asked: Why did you call illegal immigrants "dirty?"

The Maricopa County sheriff responded quietly, clearing his throat often, and saying the statement was taken out of context. He added that if a person were to cross the U.S.-Mexico border on foot over four days in the desert that person "could be dirty."

"That's the context on how I used that word," he said.

The case represents the first time the sheriff's office has been accused of systematic racial profiling and will serve as a precursor to a similar yet broader civil rights lawsuit filed against Arpaio by the U.S. Justice Department.

Arpaio has long denied racial profiling allegations and said Tuesday, "We don't arrest people because of the color of their skin."

Letters in the sheriff's immigration file took center stage during his more than five hours of testimony- as did his previous statements, which critics say show prejudiced thinking on his part.

Lawyers in court asked Arpaio: What about your statement on a national TV news show saying you considered a 2007 comparison between your department and the Ku Klux Klan "an honor"?

Arpaio responded that he doesn't consider the comparison an honor, adding that he has no use for the KKK.

The plaintiffs' attorneys also turned to Arpaio's famous practice of putting county jail inmates in pink underwear, using statements he made during a 2009 speech to an anti-illegal immigration group in Houston.

"I always have an official reason so I can win the lawsuits," Arpaio said, after stating the pink shorts are less likely to be smuggled out of jail and sold on the black market.

"And then I have my reasons," he went on. "And my reason is they hate pink. They do. They may like it in California, but they don't like it in Arizona."

He was asked whether he says one thing in court and does another when he leaves.

"This is in humor," Arpaio said. "I make sure we do things properly in case I get sued."

The group of Latinos who say they have been discriminated against say Arpaio launched some immigration sweeps based on emails and letters that don't allege crimes, but complain only that "dark-skinned people" are congregating in a given area or speaking Spanish.

During the sweeps, sheriff's deputies flood an area of a city- in some cases, heavily Latino areas- over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders.

Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by Arpaio's office since January 2008, according to figures provided by the sheriff's department, which hasn't conducted any such patrols since October.

Arpaio was asked whether a white person was ever arrested on an immigration violation during the first two years of such sweeps, to which he replied, "I can't recall."

The plaintiffs aren't seeking money in the suit. They are seeking a declaration that Arpaio's office racially profiles Latinos and an order requiring policy changes.

If Arpaio loses the case, he won't face jail time or fines. If he wins, it would be likely to severely undercut the government's case against him.

The plaintiffs say deputies conducting Arpaio's sweeps pulled over Hispanics without probable cause, making the stops only to inquire about the immigration status of the people in the vehicles.

The sheriff maintained that people are stopped only if authorities have probable cause to believe they have committed crimes and that deputies later find many of the people stopped are illegal immigrants.

Plaintiff's lawyers say Arpaio endorsed calls for racial profiling with the sweeps by passing along the ambiguous and racially-charged complaint letters to aides who planned his immigration enforcement efforts and carried out at least three patrols after receiving the letters.

They also point out that Arpaio wrote thank-you notes to some who sent complaints.

Arpaio's attorneys denied that the letters and emails prompted the sheriff to launch the patrols with a discriminatory motive. His lawyers called the complaints racially insensitive and said aides to the sheriff- not Arpaio himself- decided where to conduct the patrols. They also said there was nothing wrong with the thank-you notes.

"He sends thank-you letters because he is an elected official," Tim Casey, the lawyer leading Arpaio's defense, said during opening arguments.

In an August 2008 letter, a woman wrote about a Sun City restaurant: "From the staff at the register to the staff back in the kitchen area, all I heard was Spanish- except when they haltingly spoke to a customer." The letter ended with a suggestion that the sheriff investigate.

Arpaio made a handwritten note in the margins saying, "letter thank you for info will look into it" and that the complaint should be sent to aide Brian Sands, who selects locations for sweeps, with a notation saying "for our operation." The sheriff's office launched a sweep two weeks later in Sun City.

Arpaio said in response to a question about the letter Tuesday that speaking Spanish is not a crime and that he sent the note to Sands for "him for whatever he wants to do with it."

Arpaio also said he generally passed along the letters that called for immigration enforcement in a particular area to his subordinates, but didn't do the planning for the sweeps.

"I just send this info to my subordinates so they could ask for it. I don't agree with every letter I receive," Arpaio said.

"We should never racially profile," Arpaio said. "It's immoral, illegal."

Arizona sheriff shows none of trademark swagger - United States News - KTAR.com

Reporter weighs in on Arpaio's appearance in court

By Martha Maurer
Originally published: Jul 24, 2012 - 6:31 pm
KTAR.com

Sheriff Joe Arpaio took the stand Tuesday as part of the federal case against him and his offices. Arpaio and his deputies are facing allegations of racially profiling during crime suppression sweeps.

Fox Ten reporter Steve Krafft told KTAR's Mac and Gaydos Show Tuesday that Arpaio's attorney's tried to paint a different picture of the sheriff.

"They're trying to suggest that he is a lightning rod on this issue, because he is one of the few people who are courageous enough to take a stand," Krafft said. "He receives a lot of mail, a lot of media attention directed his way and a lot of overheated rhetoric."

Kraft said that Arpaio was far from his normal self in court, wearing a dark suit and was carrying a hushed tone looking very subdued.

"Today he said he had a touch of the flu, and they asked if he'd be able to testify and he said ‘Yeah, okay,'" Krafft said. "He kept his voice down the whole time."

Arpaio addressed allegations of being racist during interviews on television and radio, as well as racially profiling Hispanics.

"Of course, he went on the say that these are taken out of context and that anything that was wrong in his book was taken out of context by his ghost writer," Krafft said.

Outside of the courthouse, dozens of people gathered to protest the sheriff and four people were arrested for blocking traffic.

Reporter weighs in on Arpaio's appearance in court - Phoenix News - KTAR.com

I just pray Sheriff Joe does not get a biased judge and gets a fair trial. If he gets a fair trial, he will be exonerated.

These illegal alien supporters are throwing the same kind of lies and context abuses we see them using all the time!

W

Four undocumented immigrants were holding a banner that read: "No Papers, No Fear."

Gee, thanks Obama.

Meanwhile, some protesters staged a civil disobedience near the courthouse. Four undocumented immigrants were holding a banner that read: "No Papers, No Fear."

The American people should be ashamed that foreign nationals, people that have no STATUS in this country are being allowed to persecute our citizens for their own gain and publicly demonstrate. The little skin color signs they are waving are ridiculous and since they probably can't read of write English well enough to make the signs, they show their ignorance and willingness to be used as useful idiots.

Latino, Hispanic, Mexican etc is Not a race - Mexican and Honduran are nationalities, FOREIGN nationalities, These people are from countries that are nothing but parasites to our country as they live off of taxpayer largess,drive down wages and corrupt our political system.

This entire little dog and pony show of a trial is offensive and shows that the law enforcement arm of current administration of the US government, headed by AAG Tom Perez in this instance , has an agenda of destruction that allows third world easily manipulated rubes to "migrate" to this country in defiance of the law in order to "dilute" and redistribute the wealth of the the existing population of this country per the UN. JMO

First article added to the Homepage
http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=7...nix-courthouse

Bill - No such luck. Judge Snow is a Mormon - the LDS last year adopted a pro-amnesty position in the "Utah Compact", and later helped get rid of Russell Pearce - and he did his missionary work in South America and speaks fluent Spanish. He also awarded the ACLU $90,000 in legal fees in a past case. He last year ordered Apraio's office not to arrest anyone for the "sole reason of being Hispanic" - which was an outrageously biased accusation and order. I think Joe is going to lose this one.

Newmexican - Also, at least 33% of Mexicans are white anyway, including every single Mexican President. Fox and Calderon are 100% Spanish extraction.

Arpaio aide: No more profiling safeguards needed

By Associated Press
Originally published: Jul 26, 2012 - 1:28 pm

PHOENIX - A top aide to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio testified that the sheriff's office doesn't launch its signature immigration patrols based on citizen letters that complained about Hispanics and Spanish-speakers but didn't describe actual crimes.

Arpaio aide Brian Sands says at a trial Thursday that he disregards such letters when selecting sites for the patrols.

The sheriff's office is accused of basing some traffic stops in the patrols on the race of the people who were in vehicles.

Arpaio denies the allegation.

Those who filed the lawsuit are seeking a declaration that Arpaio's office racially profiles and an order requiring it to make policy changes.

Sands says he doesn't believe the sheriff's office has a culture that leads to racial profiling and doesn't need additional changes to guard against it.

Arpaio aide: No more profiling safeguards needed - Phoenix News - KTAR.com