Posted on Thu, Mar 12th, 2009| Categories: U.S.|
Civil rights leaders and immigration reform advocates met in Washington yesterday to applaud the announcement that Joe Arpaio, the publicity-seeking sheriff whose immigration sweeps and harsh treatment of prisoners in Arizona's Maricopa County have raised eyebrows at both ends of the political spectrum, is now the subject of a Department of Justice investigation.

Arpaio received a letter earlier this week from the office of the U.S. attorney general informing him that his department, which polices a broad area including Phoenix and its suburbs, was being investigated for suspected civil rights violations, including "discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures ... [as well as] allegations of national origin discrimination."

According to civil rights experts, the investigation, one of the few times the government has ever conducted a civil rights investigation into a local police agency's immigration enforcement practices, could be a sign of things to come, as the Obama administration moves toward more comprehensive immigration reform. "It's hard to imagine this happening in the previous administration. In fact, it seemed to me that the Bush administration encouraged the Sheriff Arpaios of the nation to do what they're doing," says Kevin Johnson, dean of the University of California-Davis School of Law. "It is a signal the Obama administration is going to look a lot more carefully at the proper role for local government in immigration enforcement."

Topics: Immigration Enforcement, S Line, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Discriminatory Police
http://www.mashget.com/us/2009/03/12/ob ... forcement/