Big March In Phoenix Aimed At Removing Sheriff Joe Arpaio
By Dolores M. Bernal



Jan 8, 2010




Demonstrators from across the country are gearing up to assemble in Phoenix, Arizona next Saturday to demand that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio be removed from office. Arpaio has remained the top foe of immigrants living in the US and they’re ready to step up their fight.

The Los Angeles-based organization, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON.org), is coordinating a mass march in downtown Phoenix and are calling for people who don’t live in Arizona to join them.

Arpaio’s office has been under investigation by the Department of Justice for alleged racial-profiling and unfair treatment of Latinos. The ACLU has also filed a number of lawsuits on behalf of clients who were targeted by Arpaio’s deputies based on their skin color.

Maricopa County had been granted the power to enforce immigration law by ICE in 2004, but Arpaio’s use of that power was overstepped. Over the years, claims of intimidation and harassment by his office raised red flags and in 2009 the DOJ initiated a probe against Arpaio in which he refused to cooperate.

Last October, the Department of Homeland Security, under which ICE operates, stripped Arpaio from his ability to enforce immigration law, which includes questioning people about their immigration status and arresting them on the spot if they cannot provide proof that they are in the country legally. But a defiant Arpaio has continued to enforce immigration law under Arizona’s “Coyote Law.â€