Justice Dept. Finally Cuffs Sheriff Joe Arpaio, But Not the Policy That Made Him

 Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America,” will cooperate with the federal government’s demands to clean up his department after a three-year investigation found rampant racial profiling and widespread discriminatory policing under his watch. But he’s not doing it without issuing a few demands of his own.

Arpaio was up against a Wednesday deadline set forth by the Department of Justice following the release of its damning report last month. He had to either voluntarily comply with the DOJ’s proposed reforms for Maricopa County, Ariz., or face civil action, the Department of Justice told Arpaio last month. Arpaio responded pointedly, saying he would begin talks with the Department of Justice only when federal government provided “proof” he’d done something wrong.

The lengthy response from Arpaio’s attorneys all but bristles. It includes 106 separate requests for documentation of the Justice Department’s findings and claims a “dearth of facts” in the original report.

“We, too, prefer to resolve this matter without litigation, but will not cower at the threat of litigation, either,” Arpaio’s attorneys wrote to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez.

It was a classic move from the publicity-obsessed sheriff, who’s made a name for himself as an anti-immigrant hardliner so committed to detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants that he was willing to trample on the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike.

In his tenure as sheriff, Arpaio has eagerly exploited the power that the Department of Homeland Security handed him to enforce federal immigration law, through programs like 287(g) and Secure Communities. The Department of Justice investigation confirmed the community’s longstanding complaints about racial profiling and a jail system that runs roughshod over inmates’ basic rights. It found that Latino drivers were four to nine times more likely than their non-Latino counterparts to be pulled over for traffic stops, for instance.

But Immigrant rights advocates say that the Department of Justice report calls into question more than Arpaio. They say it also indicts the immigration enforcement programs that Arpaio the Department of Homeland Security empowered him to carry out. Under 287(g) and Secure Communities, local law enforcement collaborate with federal immigration enforcement officers to screen and refer deportable immigrants who pass through local and county jails to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We all knew what Arpaio was doing,” said Carlos Garcia with the Arizona-based immigrant rights organization PUENTE, “but the most important fact was the report also condemned the ICE programs that gave Arpaio immigration enforcement powers, and that being what created the racial profiling and what created the abuse.”

Immigrant rights groups argue that DHS should stop contracting with Arpaio entirely.

“The DOJ has exposed the corrupt partnership between DHS and Sheriff Arpaio,” said Sarahi Uribe, an organizer with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “A precedent has been set when the Constitution is being violated and when people are being racially profiled the federal government should not be contracting with those local law enforcement agencies.”

Immediately after the DOJ released its investigation last month, DHS moved to cut off Arpaio’s participation in 287(g) and access to Secure Communities. In recent weeks the changes have not led to any substantive change on the ground, Garcia said.

According to Garcia, Arpaio’s deputies are no longer allowed to ask for a person’s immigration status upon arrest; that responsibility has been moved to ICE officers who are inside county jails. However, Arpaio’s officers still patrol the streets and stop and book people as always.