Arizona Sheriff Stirs Furor With Crackdown on Illegals

[Purveyor]

(04-25) 11:18 PDT GUADALUPE, Ariz. (AP) --

The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" has been making forays into Phoenix and nearby Guadalupe and sweeping up illegal immigrants, drawing howls of protest from the cities' mayors and other community leaders.

While Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has legal authority to enforce the law in cities within his county, politicians and activists are accusing him of grandstanding and, worse, racial profiling.

A total of 150 people — 73 of them illegal immigrants — were arrested by Arpaio's deputies in the raids on heavily Hispanic sections in late March and early April.

"I was upset. We did not request them here," said Guadalupe Mayor Rebecca Jimenez, who charged that the patrols were meant to raise Arpaio's profile for his re-election campaign this year.

Guadalupe, a community of about 6,000 people that relies on the sheriff's office for police protection, is taking steps to find another department to patrol its streets.

As for Phoenix, Mayor Phil Gordon said Arpaio should be concentrating on more pressing duties such as finding people with warrants against them, and he has asked for a federal civil rights investigation, complaining the sheriff is singling out people who are "driving with a broken taillight or have brown skin." The U.S. Justice Department refused to comment.

And in Mesa, Arizona's third-largest city, the police chief has requested two days' notice of any sweeps Arpaio might conduct there, so that his officers can be prepared for any unrest.

Arpaio has long had a reputation for in-your-face tactics. He is known for making jail inmates wear pink underwear, assigning them to old-style chain gangs, and serving them green bologna sandwiches.

He began pushing the boundaries on immigration three years ago when he set up a special unit to deal with people sneaking across the border. Since then, his office has arrested 900 illegal immigrants under a state human smuggling law and set up a hot line for reporting immigration violations.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/25/national/a111856D46.DTL

[alstephenson]

1. Sheriff Joe.

Most racist sheriff in America. There's a lot more to this than the article indicates.

[Generic Other]

2. he's the guy who threatened to arrest me for tampering with electoral college 2000

Seems I committed a felony by writing to them all and appealing to them not to let the lying cheating usurper Bush steal the presidency.