Sheriff Arpaio takes heat from media
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 6/10/2009 6:20:00 AM

A border enforcement activist is defending a controversial law enforcement official he believes is being harassed by the Obama administration because of his tough policies dealing with illegal aliens.


The Washington Post has reported that lawyers representing controversial Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joseph Arpaio recently accused officials in the Justice and Homeland Security Departments of political motivations in pursuing probes against their client, who is under investigation for his handling of illegal aliens. Arpaio and his office have drawn widespread attention for an unorthodox approach to crime and punishment, and are now the focus of three federal investigations into whether they violated federal rules or civil rights laws in pursuing illegal immigrants.

The Post also reported that Arpaio's attorneys recently wrote to Obama administration officials, questioning whether investigators followed ethics rules in launching the probes this year. Al Garza, vice president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, says open-borders advocates clearly want to get rid of Arpaio.

"The man is doing what he is supposed to be doing. He was elected to do specifically what all sheriffs are supposed to do, and that is to enforce laws. And the ones who are really upset about this are obviously the open-border-policy advocates and, of course, congressmen and senators," he contends. "So it's quite obvious to me that they're not going to entertain anything other than open-border policy -- and they certainly want to get rid of anybody like Joe Arpaio."

The civil rights probe of the Arpaio operation began in early March, just weeks after four influential Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee called for an investigation into alleged discrimination and possible constitutional violations in arrests and in police searches and seizures.

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