Sheriff Joe Arpaio defends Arizona’s new immigration law

By Michael Mishak
Friday, May 7, 2010 | 6:59 p.m.

Joe Arpaio, the freewheeling sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, visited Las Vegas on Friday, defending his state’s tough new immigration law, saying that it will not, as critics have charged, lead to widespread racial profiling.

In fact, he said the law, which makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally and directs police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they’re illegal immigrants, adds little more than a small degree of cover for the aggressive immigration programs that have earned him the label of “America’s toughest sheriff.â€