Reports from late last week and through the weekend are coming in regarding Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his latest “crime” sweep, this time in the aptly named town of Surprise, Arizona.
Sheriff Arpaio signed his first 287g agreement with the Bush Administration, and has since been given free rein to commit civil rights abuses and terrorize the Latino community in Maricopa County. Last week, Obama’s DHS acted to limit his authority, by signing an agreement that only allows his to check the immigration status of inmates in county jails. As my colleague Adam Luna argued last week, DHS and Napolitano did not go far enough in limiting his power.
It’s no surprise is that Sheriff Joe decided to go ahead with his 12th crime sweep of a Latino-heavy neighborhood to date. He seems to be thumbing his nose at federal officials, vowing to continue his intimidation tactics, regardless of what the law says:
According to Sheriff’s Office spokesman Brian Lee, Arpaio has vowed to continue his enforcement of all aspects of immigration laws and says that the federal government’s move to strip deputies of their ICE agent status will not change anything.
Citing a 1996 federal law, Arpaio said officials are allowed to detain someone briefly if that person is in the country illegally.
