Arpaio anxious to enforce new law
by Jim Cross
(June 28th, 2010 @ 6:33am)
Comments:27

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he's looking forward to enforcing Arizona's tough new immigration law which takes effect July 29.

Arpaio has been under investigation by the federal government for 18 months for his enforcement of the state's employer sanctions law.

"For alleged racial profiling," Arpaio said. "I haven't heard anything yet, but that's not stopping me."

Arpaio has been arresting illegal immigrants for three years. The major change is that, under the new law, he can jail them instead of turning them over to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The sheriff said he plans to launch another of his crime suppression sweeps -- aimed at finding illegal immigrants working, possibly with stolen identification documents -- the minute the new law takes effect.

"I'm not going the day after. I'm going to do it the minute after midnight. I'm not going to wait until the day after," he said.

The new law requires local law enforcement officers to question the immigration status of any person they contact and have reasonable suspicion to believe is in the United States illegally.

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