DOJ Again Tells Arpaio They’re Suing Over Civil Rights Violations

H/T to Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) for posting this article:

DOJ Again Tells Arpaio They’re Suing Over Civil Rights Violations

The Justice Department says they’re putting Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on final notice.

Over 100 days after first issuing a report which found Arpaio’s Maricopa Country Sheriff’s Office to be in violation of civil rights laws, DOJ has sent a letter telling Arpaio that they have concluded that an agreement “cannot be secured through voluntary means.” DOJ is required under the law to notify a party before they sue them in court.

DOJ said in a letter to Arpaio last month that they didn’t believe the issue could be settled through negotiations.

This was originally published by Talking Points Memo.

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DOJ Report Finds Arpaio Engaged in Practice of Civil Rights Abuses, Racial Profiling

December 15, 2011


This release comes from the American Immigration Council.  The American Immigration Council's mission is to strengthen America by honoring our immigrant history and shaping how Americans think about and act towards immigration now and in the future.

DOJ Report Slams Sheriff Joe Arpaio and DHS Restricts 287(g) and Secure Communities Programs
Washington D.C. - After a three-year investigation into the abusive practices of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Maricopa County Sherriff’s Office (MCSO), the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that it had found a pattern and practice of civil rights abuses, including extreme cases of racial profiling. The enormity of the violations, the majority of which were experienced by immigrants and Latinos, has led the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to suspend its cooperation agreement (under section 287(g)) with the sheriff’s office and restrict the MCSO’s access to immigration databases through the Secure Communities program.
The dual announcements from DOJ and DHS reinforce what many in Arizona and the broader immigration community have long argued: the practice of allowing local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law increases the likelihood of racial profiling and pretextual arrests which leads to disastrous results for entire communities.
The DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez commented on the investigation noting “MCSO’s systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections has created a wall of distrust between the sheriff’s office and large segments of the community, which dramatically compromises the ability to protect and serve the people. The problems are deeply rooted in MCSO’s culture, and are compounded by MCSO’s penchant for retaliation against individuals who speak out.”

The DOJ has requested a response from Maricopa County and writes “If MCSO is not interested or if we deem that MCSO is not engaged in good-faith efforts to achieve compliance by voluntary means, we are prepared to file a civil action to compel compliance.”

The report contains a review of the constitutional abuses rampant in Maricopa County including an analysis by a leading expert on measuring racial profiling who examined MCSO traffic stops and found that “Latino drivers were between four to nine times more likely to be stopped than similarly situated non-Latino drivers. Overall, the expert concluded that this case involves the most egregious racial profiling in the United States that he has ever personally seen in the course of his work, observed in litigation, or reviewed in professional literature.”

Today’s announcements also highlight the critical issues at stake in the upcoming Supreme Court review of Arizona’s SB 1070, a law that institutionalized the role of state law enforcement in federal immigration matters. Even under the best of circumstances, ceding immigration authority to state officers presents an array of complex and politically charged issues. Under the worst of circumstances, as illustrated by Sherriff Arpaio’s MCSO, state and local law enforcement agencies enforcing federal immigration laws can be disasterous.

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Sheriff Arpaio Investigated by David Brancaccio and NOW

In this weeks edition of NOW with David Brancaccio on PBS, Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is investigated by Exposé and local reporters from the East Valley Tribune. They reveal what Sheriff Arpaio was—and wasn't—doing in the name of law enforcement.

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Arpaio to be investigated by Department of Justice

We just got the news that Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Department is the target of a federal probe over allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures. Here is the link to the Associated Press article. Below is today's press release from our partners at the National Immigration Forum.

Justice Department Investigation of Arizona Sheriff Welcomed, Needed, and Overdue

Contact: Katherine Vargas (kvargas@immigrationforum.org)
(202) 383-5987 or (202) 641-5198 (mobile)

Washington, DC - According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) letter dated March 10, the Civil Rights Division will be investigating Sheriff Joe Arpaio of the Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff's Office (MCSO) focusing on "…alleged patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures conducted by the MCSO, and on allegations of national origin discrimination…" The MCSO has a 287g agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to conduct immigration enforcement actions and Sheriff Arpaio was recently described by Ali Noorani as "the poster boy for all that is wrong with the 287g program," in a Wall Street Journal article. The following is a statement by Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum.

We welcome the Department of Justice's investigation because when a local elected official takes the law into his own hands, the role of the federal government is to protect the people from abuse. The Sheriff's over-the-top publicity-seeking has made him a flashpoint for those concerned that immigration enforcement practices are out of control, but DOJ needs to keep a close eye on any Sheriff more concerned with headlines than the Constitution and the law. In the mean time, the Sheriff's 287g agreement with the federal government should be suspended pending the outcome of this investigation.

Just because the Congress has not passed immigration reform is no excuse for the federal government to abdicate enforcement to local sheriffs, especially when some of those local police have abused their power. How and when local police should enforce federal immigration law and how the 287g program has been administered has been ignored by Washington for too long. Issues raised by a series of government and non-government reports (link, link, link) clearly indicate that more oversight is needed and not just from the Department of Justice.

These developments put additional pressure on Congress to address immigration reform. State and local governments and law enforcement are rightly calling for action, the American people want to know when someone will act to address immigration, and immigrant communities that feel under siege want clear next steps towards reform. We need solutions that restore the rule of law, prioritize hardened criminals - immigrant and non-immigrant - for enforcement, and get the vast majority of hard working immigrants integrated into our communities and on the road to citizenship. That would be progress and much more constructive than this Arizona Sheriff's stunts, which may be found to have been in violation of federal law.

Visit http://www.immigrationforum.org/ for more information.

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Justice for Joe Arpaio

Should "America's Toughest Sheriff" get a free pass on his controversial tactics? Should he round up immigrants at traffic stops and force them to sleep in separate "Tent Cities" in the desert?

With over 2,700 lawsuits against him, a history of virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Latino tactics, and 40,000 felony warrants outstanding in his jurisdiction, Arpaio has fostered a climate in which real criminals roam free while hard-working immigrants live in fear. America's Voice is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to begin a federal investigation into his tactics, giving Sheriff Arpaio the attention he really deserves.

Demand an investigation from the Department of Justice! Demand Justice--Sign the Petition NOW!

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House Judiciary Committee calls for Investigation of Sheriff Arpaio

Good news from our partners at the National Immigration Forum. According to the release below, members of the House Judiciary Committee requested Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to investigate misconduct by Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. We will report on developments.

For Immediate Release
February 13, 2009

Contact:
Katherine Vargas (kvargas@immigrationforum.org)
(202)383-5987 or (202)641-5198 (Mobile)

The Forum Applauds Calls for Federal Investigation of Sheriff Arpaio’s Misconduct

Washington, DC – On Thursday, February 12, Members of the House Judiciary Committee requested Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to investigate misconduct by Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The letter is a direct response to Sheriff Arpaio’s February 4 actions, when he forced 220 shackled immigrants awaiting trial to march through the streets of Phoenix to a segregated facility called “Tent City”. The following is a statement by Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan pro-immigrant advocacy group in Washington.

The National Immigration Forum commends House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI.), Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Crime Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) for their leadership in calling for much-needed federal review and investigation of Sheriff Arpaio and his enforcement of immigration law. Sheriff Arpaio’s utter disregard of individual rights, as demonstrated most recently by his humiliating march of shackled pre-trial detainees through the streets of Phoenix, is perhaps the most egregious example of the current abuse of laws, such as those commonly referred to as 287(g) agreements, that empower local authorities to enforce federal immigration law. The Sheriff Arpaio’s reported use of racial profiling and excessive force cannot be justified under any circumstance, and certainly not as a means of enforcing immigration law.

Over the last two weeks, organizations from across the country have come together to repudiate the actions of Sheriff Arpaio. The Forum is proud to have worked with labor, civil rights, faith and immigrant organizations to submit a national sign-on letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano requesting she conduct a comprehensive review of Sheriff Arpaio’s management of the 287g agreement and determine the need to terminate Maricopa County’s participation in the program, based on the violations of the terms of the agreement which have resulted in civil rights abuses. Similarly, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund submitted a sign-on letter to Attorney General Eric Holder to direct the Civil Rights Division to initiate a federal investigation for potential civil rights violations during Sheriff Arpaio’s immigration enforcement actions. America’s Voice has also begun a similar petition calling for an investigation by the Department of Justice.

Sherriff Arpaio’s actions are public and have received widespread attention, but are not isolated instances. In order to genuinely address the potential for abuse in our current immigration system, the Obama administration must accelerate its efforts to fill key positions within DHS to give Secretary Napolitano the necessary resources and personnel to act swiftly to improve the rights of all. Likewise, the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties must be given adequate funding, staff, and support to provide the necessary oversight and compliance for local authorities enforcing immigration law.

Even with such changes, however, until the Administration and Congress tackle a comprehensive reform of our immigration system, demagogues and charlatans will attempt to pass off deaths in detention, forced marches, family separations, and civil rights abuses as all fair in the war on immigrants. We can and should do better, but today’s call for action by the Judiciary Committee is an important start towards ending at least one of the many instances of abusive treatment in our immigration enforcement system.

As our nation begins a “new era of responsibility”, we expect the new administration to deliver its promise of change and restore accountability and integrity to the enforcement of our immigration laws and the treatment of immigrants in our country.

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For more on the National Immigration Forum, visit www.immigrationforum.org. The National Immigration Forum is the leading immigrant advocacy organization in the country with a mission to advocate for the value of immigrants and immigration to the nation.

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Arpaio's Immigration Sweeps Draw Community Criticism and a Lawsuit

According to the news reports, a lawsuit has been brought against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for what is said to be racial profiling.

Allegations are that the immigration sweeps conducted by Maricopa County Deputies under the direction of Sheriff Arpaio are targeting vehicles driven by individuals appearing of Hispanic decent to ascertain their citizenship status.

Those who filed the lawsuit claim that the Arpaio’s Deputies had no probable cause to stop the vehicles and those that were stopped for immigration checks were solely done so on basis of their skin color.

The Maricopa Sheriff’s office focus on immigration sweeps haven't been quite a favorite of residents and actually has come at a price. Among the complaints from residents is slow response to emergency calls and failure by the department to thoroughly investigate crimes.

According to the Capitol Times, the most affected are "remote rural communities in the sprawling county, where Arpaio stripped deputies from beat patrols to staff his new immigration enforcement team."

We will continue to follow this story and post updates as they come available.

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