Dispute has been happening in The Grand Canyon State for quite a while. There continues to be no ruling on the SB1070 Arizona law, allowing officers to check immigration status of many the Obama administration is challenging because of constitutional grounds of the law Governor Jan Brewer decried. The Department of Justice has decided to sue Sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, raging on the Grand Canyon State and federal government feud. An investigation was being conducted on civil rights abuse. The Department of Justice says Joe Arpaio didn’t cooperate in this.
Suspected discrimination by Joe
The investigation began to fight tactics Sheriff Joe Arpaio supposedly used. Evidently he wanted to “sweep” illegal immigrants by only targeting Hispanics, whether or not they were legal. The Los Angeles Times reports that Hispanic areas were targeted by the Maricopa County Sheriff deputies that stopped everyone for anything. Deputies were supposed to check immigration status while there. Doing this was expected by everybody. It was even expected before Arizona immigration law was in place. The Justice Department requested documentation on these sweeps from Sheriff Arpaio, which he was loathe to comply with. Allegedly, he denied federal investigators access to buildings and refused to hand over requested material.
Received many lawsuits
The Maricopa Sheriff is no stranger to lawsuits. He has been sued numerous times by families of inmates who have perished in his jail, the notorious Tent City, which is quite virtually a collection of tents within the desert surrounded by high fences with barbed wire at the top. There is also an ongoing investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office including Sheriff Arpaio by the grand jury. This is happening, reports ABC as a result of corruption. The Justice Department made the original request for documents and other materials more than a year ago. A federal judge found the Sheriff’s Office had destroyed documents pertaining to the sweeps in question that attorneys suing Arpaio’s department were entitled to determine.
Additional reading
ABC News
blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/09/justice-department-sues-arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio.html
LA Times
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-lawsuit-arpaio-20100903,,2874529.story
