Once again, America’s Toughest Sheriff is not backing down. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has filed an appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Arpaio is asking the court to reverse a ruling that barred his deputies who are enforcing Arizona’s immigrant smuggling law from detaining people “based solely on the suspicion that they’re in the country illegally“.
Attorneys for the sheriff told the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that a lower-court’s Dec. 23 ruling that limited the sheriff’s immigration powers was deeply flawed. The sheriff’s lawyers appealed the ruling in mid-January and filed their first brief on Friday.
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow had made the decision in a lawsuit by a handful of Latinos who alleged that Arpaio’s officers based some traffic stops on the race of Hispanics in vehicles, had no probable cause to pull them over and made the stops so they could inquire about their immigration status.
Arpaio has denied the racial profiling allegations, saying people pulled over in the patrols were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that it was only afterward that deputies found many of them were illegal immigrants.
During his immigration patrols known as “sweeps,” deputies flood an area of a city — in some cases, heavily Latino areas — over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders. Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by his office since January 2008
Arpaio’s appeal just got a lot stronger, thanks to a ruling last week from a Federal Judge in Maryland:
A federal judge has thrown out a $1 million “racial profiling” lawsuit filed by Salvadoran native Roxana Orellana Santos against Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, two deputies and the Board of County Commissioners.
Santos’ lawyers have said she was eating lunch when the two deputies saw her, stopped their car and questioned her about her immigration status, even though she had broken no laws. Jenkins has said Santos tried to hide from deputies, which prompted a request for her identification. Deputies then learned Santos was wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a deportation warrant, he said.
The illegal alien plaintiff in that case was represented by the radical group CASA de Maryland – termed the “Illegal’s ACORN” because of its strong ties to power and bullying tactics in support of lawbreakers. It is unclear if CASA will appeal the decision, but if so it could have a direct bearing on Arpaio’s appeal.
Meanwhile the out-of-control Judge Snow also expanded the scope of a racial profiling lawsuit against the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to include every Hispanic driver and passenger who has been stopped, detained, questioned or searched by MCSO deputies since January 2007 – potentially thousands of people, making a mockery of the rule of law and the judicial system itself.
It is disgraceful to see a Federal judge take steps to put the public at increased risk, and simultaneously undermine Federal immigration law, and Arizona’s efforts to combat human smuggling. Since most of the drug and human smugglers detained by MCSO are headed to states other than Arizona, Snow’s actions puts the American people at greater risk, all on the alter of racial politics. Snow should be ashamed of himself, and his rulings should be blocked and then reversed.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Joe and his deputies are using every tactic they can to get around the judge’s shameful actions. Just last week, MCSO detained 20 illegal aliens in 3 days – some of whom fought with his detectives and attempted to flee, and several of whom were wanted in other states on outstanding felony warrants.
Sheriff Joe said he will never stop enforcing the rule of law. “I report to the people of Maricopa County,” Arpaio said, “and I intend to continue enforcing the immigration laws of the state of Arizona as long as I hold this office.”
i hope Obama loses this fall. so the borders will start closing up & the pro-illegal immagration drops too
What about the 43% that were stopped? Are they going to claim racial profiling also or find another way to impede justice. If you are here illegally you are committing a crime. Be glad it is in the USA and not a country where the treatment is severe if you cross their border. Keep up your sweeps and get criminals off the road and in jail or back across the border. Here is hoping they do get sent back and not getting a college education for their children when our own youth cannot afford an education. Our youth are going into the military to get benefits.