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Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Saturday he ordered his deputies to tape conversations with federal officials after a dispute over who called for the release of illegal immigrants arrested in a crime sweep. Arpaio said a total of 13 illegal immigrants have been released — three on Thursday and 10 on Friday — after federal officials said their arrests didn’t fit new Department of Homeland Security policies and ordered the deputies to release them. The sheriff’s claim over the releases was initially contradicted by a Homeland Security official. In the recording, multiple tracks detail conversations between deputies and ICE...

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Friday the federal government released three illegal immigrants arrested in a crime sweep Thursday because their arrests didn’t fit new Department of Homeland Security policies. Arpaio said DHS breached a promise that he could operate under an existing agreement that allows him to enforce immigration law. DHS is requiring all local police agencies with existing 287(g) agreements to sign new ones within the next three months that are in accordance with new policies and department objectives or else lose their authority. “I am stunned that this reversal came about so soon after I was...

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Washington attorney said Tuesday they will not cooperate with an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into the sheriff's office until the feds name specific charges and reveal what they are looking for. Arpaio also said Tuesday during a heavily attended press conference in Phoenix he will not be intimidated nor back down in his methods of crime sweeps that have netted the arrests of 4,000 illegal immigrants in the last two and a half months. Arpaio's office is accused of racial profiling during crime sweeps and is the target of a civil rights...

HOST: Health care. MCCAIN: Needs reform. HOST: That’s two words. [weird laugh] Iraq. MCCAIN: Success. HOST: Arizona. MCCAIN: The best. HOST: US-Mexico Border. McCain: Cartels. HOST: GOP. MCCAIN: Transition. HOST: Sheriff Joe Arpaio:MCCAIN: Umm…

Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon used the occasion of a fatal shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC – allegedly by a white supremacist – to accuse Sheriff Joe Arpaio of being sympathetic to Nazis and neo-Nazis. At a news conference called to discuss Phoenix's light rail system, Gordon led off expressing his sympathies to the family of the victim in the DC shooting. He then called white supremacists "despicable" and wondered aloud why community and law enforcement leaders across the Valley have repeatedly denounced white Supremacists, except for Arpaio. According to Gordon, the sheriff has had numerous occasions to...

PHOENIX - Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his attorneys said in a press conference Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security have an ulterior motive in their investigation into the sheriff's office. Arpaio and his attorneys outlined their reasons for demanding an investigation into the two agencies for unethical conduct and improper political influence during the course of their investigation of Arpaio's illegal immigration enforcement policies. "After serving with the DOJ for nearly 30 years as a ranking official with the DEA, it is almost painful to have to ask for this investigation," Arpaio says. "But...

Reverend Al Sharpton 106 West 145th Street Harlem, New York City, New York 10039 Fax: 212 690 3070 Dear Reverend Sharpton: I have read about you with much interest since learning of the protest you plan to lead against me in Maricopa County in June as a way to force my resignation or removal from office. Your public proclamation leads me to the conclusion: not only do you not understand Arizona; you also do not understand democracy. As the elected Sheriff who, so far has been elected to five consecutive four-year terms, I answer to the four million residents of...

The Reverend Al Sharpton must be running out of things to protest, today he went after Sheriff Joe Arpaio. According to a report by Reuters, the opportunist Sharpton, called on Sheriff Joe to resign accusing him of racially profiling Hispanics because of his attempts to enforce US immigration laws: Under a deal allowing them to enforce federal immigration laws, the deputies have arrested more than 1,500 people who they determined were in Arizona illegally, triggering street protests and condemnation from Latino activists who accuse him of racial profiling."I am first calling for the resignation and or removal of Sheriff Arpaio...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. civil rights activist Al Sharpton weighed into a fight over an Arizona sheriff's immigration sweeps on Tuesday, accusing him of racially profiling Hispanics and urging him to step down. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has dispatched deputies into Hispanic communities in the Phoenix area, where they stop people and arrest anyone who cannot prove he or she is a legal U.S. resident. Under a deal allowing them to enforce federal immigration laws, the deputies have arrested more than 1,500 people who they determined were in Arizona illegally, triggering street protests and condemnation from Latino activists...

WHOOOO HOOO!!!! (from a FIRE coalition email I just received) A MUST SEE video. "After all of the abuse the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office takes from La Raza, MALDEF, ACLU, and their Mayor Gordon of Phoenix for enforcing the law, the Sheriff Deputies finally fight back in a press conference of their own!"

Link only as it is an AP story. FR Rules

Sheriff Arpaio Has ‘No Intention’ of Testifying Before Conyers Committee on Alleged Immigration Enforcement Abuses Monday, March 16, 2009 By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter (CNSNews.com) – House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com he is going to invite Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio to testify in his committee about alleged abuses by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in its enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. But a spokeswoman for Arpaio told CNSNews.com that the sheriff--who has not yet received an official invitation to testify--currently has “no intention” of appearing before Conyers’ committee. The spokeswoman said, however, that Arpaio “welcomes”...

Sometimes we Americans are too soft. We so desperately want to help people that we end up hurting ourselves. We did it with welfare, we do it in the war on terror, and we do it when it comes to Illegal immigration. Too many people on the liberal side of the fence argue that illegal immigration is a racial issue. Those of us that want to protect the US boarders inspired by racism, trying to keep out Hispanics. This is simply not true. Illegal immigration is a Law and Order Issue and a anti-terrorism issue. Hence the word ILLEGAL immigration....

A "whois" search of the website www.arpaio.com (an anti-Sheriff Joe website) shows that it is registered to a P.O. Box in Herndon, VA. Who is the registrant?

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department over allegations of discriminatory practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures.... In February, four Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate possible civil rights violations based on complaints that Arpaio's deputies are targeting people based on their skin color during neighborhood crime sweeps and raids at work sites....

Federal authorities have told a high-profile Arizona sheriff that they will investigate his department over allegations of discriminatory practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures. The U.S. Justice Department said in a letter delivered Tuesday to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio that the investigation will focus on alleged patterns of discrimination based on a person's national origin. Arpaio told The Associated Press that he will cooperate with the Justice Department. Arpaio, who describes himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff" and is best known for feeding jail inmates green bologna sandwiches, clothing them in pink underwear, and making them work on chain gangs,...

During his visit to Mohave County last week, Arizona Sen. John McCain sat down with the Kingman Daily Miner Editorial Board to discuss a number of issues. The senator answered questions about the economic stimulus package, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, education and other issues. The following is Part II of the discussion the board had with the senator on Feb. 19. MINER: My parents live down in Yuma. One of the things they're most worried about is illegal immigration. My dad is fired up by the fact that that became a non-issue when you guys were running for...

America’s Toughest Sheriff Calls Rosanna “A Great Representative” Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Sheriff and a legendary voice for border security, has endorsed Rosanna Pulido for Congress in the Illinois Fifth District. Arpaio noted Pulido’s long-term grassroots activism for seniors, law enforcement officers, and the economy, saying “Rosanna is thoroughly involved and committed to do all that she can to help our nation get through this very difficult economic decline.” “I am delighted to accept the endorsement of America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Pulido said. “As a nationally known figure, Sheriff Joe has a proven track record — both in fighting crime in...

More federal government interference, more violations of the 10th Amendment. Maybe Conyers should investigate himself House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and three fellow Democrats want the Department of Justice to investigate civil rights complaints against controversial sheriff Joe Arpaio. The lawmakers, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sent Friday, are seeking a probe into reports Arpaio has used skin color as a basis to search for illegal immigrants in Arizona. Exactly what skin color do illegals crossing the southern border tend to have, John? As the saying goes, isn’t...

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox has vowed to seek a federal investigation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's decision to segregate illegal immigrants in his Tent City Jail. "It's a brand new Washington, and we're going to have to use the Justice Department to look into this abuse," Wilcox said after Arpaio moved about 200 convicted illegal immigrants from the Durango Jail to a fenced area at Tent City Wednesday afternoon. "You don't have to make us the laughing stock of the United States by doing stunts like this, and you don't have to abuse people. And that's what everybody is...