Just one day after some members of the House of Representatives voted to prevent the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from doing its job by prohibiting funding for its lawsuits challenging state anti-immigrant laws like Arizona's SB 1070, the DOJ sent a strong message that it is still very much in the business of administering justice. The federal government's announcement that it filed a lawsuit against "Sheriff Joe" of Arizona is welcome news for anyone with brown skin or a Spanish accent in Maricopa County. The lawsuit describes systemic discrimination and mistreatment of Latinos that sends chills down the spine of those of us who believe in the rights enshrined by our Constitution.
Sadly, Joe Arpaio isn't the only law enforcement official to systemically mistreat Latinos and others who appear to be "foreign." I had the privilege of participating in a delegation organized by the We Belong Together campaign, and heard the chilling testimony of courageous women like Juana Villegas who was shackled and detained while giving birth after being arrested for a minor traffic violation by Davidson County sheriff's deputies. The DOJ lawsuit will hopefully deter similarly emboldened law enforcement officers from New Haven, Connecticut to New Orleans, Louisiana , who have engaged in discriminatory behavior against Latinos and others, treating them as second class citizens or detaining them in subhuman conditions.
Fortunately, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and others engaging in such discriminatory and retaliatory conduct are outliers. Most law enforcement officers I've spoken with believe in community policing and understand that they cannot do their jobs if immigrants do not trust the police enough to come forward to report a crime either as a witness or victim. Most law enforcement officers know they need strong relationships with the immigrant community in order to ensure everyone's safety.
Unfortunately, it only takes one Sheriff Joe to sever ties between law enforcement and immigrant communities across the nation. As a result of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's actions, Latinos in Arizona have concluded, and not without reason, that law enforcement is not to be trusted. Over the past few years, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has allegedly engaged in the following actions with impunity:
- Stopping a woman who was 5 months pregnant, demanding that she sit on the hood of the car, and grabbing her arms and slamming her, stomach first, into the automobile three times when she fails to comply.
- Calling Latinos detained in the Maricopa County system "wetbacks," "stupid Mexicans," and "fucking Mexicans."
- Advancing paranoid "reconquista" theories about Latinos and immigrants.
These are only a few of the truly heinous allegations DOJ documented in their complaint, which paints a particularly disturbing picture of what happens when an organization that purports to eschew racial profiling asks simply for the public to trust that they are following the letter of the law when asked for proof of their behavior.
Not surprisingly, proponents of SB 1070, Arizona's notorious racial profiling law, offer the same blithe "trust us" response to community members who voice concerns that SB 1070 will cause those of us with brown skin or an accent to be detained or harassed by law enforcement, simply because we fit someone's description of "foreign."
The DOJ lawsuit serves as a strong reminder to all of us that we should not institute policies, practices, or laws that leave our constitutionally-protected rights vulnerable to such rampant abuses. Sheriff Joe and his counterparts across the country take advantage of state laws like SB 1070 and federal policies like Secure Communities that enable racial profiling to occur to advance their discriminatory agenda.
DOJ's continued efforts to enforce our civil rights and ensure that states and localities do not undermine our constitutional rights are commendable. The Department of Homeland Security should act in concert and terminate Secure Communities, especially in places like Maricopa County and New Orleans Parish, where DOJ has found patterns of racial profiling. Homeland Security should also terminate Secure Communities in states like Arizona, where SB 1070 is promoting the same type of racial profiling. By ensuring that complementary policies are working in concert, the federal government can help restore a sense of community among law enforcement and all those they're sworn to protect and serve.
How about illegal immigration policing - where most citizens feel that they cannot trust the feds enough since they do not do their job and police our laws?
2. Illegals are not always the "best and brightest or model citizens that any country would be lucky to have. How many of our citizens are shackled to their bed while giving birth??? Was she belligerent or what was the real reason? If it truly was only because she was an illegal - she would have a viable law suit. (crickets....?)
3. An illegal in AZ has better protections under SB1070 against racial profiling than under federal law!
4. LAPD Special Order 40 - the supposed illegal immigration silver bullet founded on the argument that enforcement creates a divide between the community and police making it harder to do their job. SO40 says that someone may not be stopped with the sole purpose of determining status. Many AZ PD's have the same policy and SB1070 does not impact that at all!
5. Secure communities is backed by federal laws and ALL states do not have an option.
6. Real ID is in the pipeline and with the new photo provisions in E-verify enforcement momentum is building.
7. The Morton Memo confirms that there is and cannot be prosecutorial discretion! ANY illegal is subject to the full force of our laws and at best the execution of prosecution might be delayed.
http://washingtonindependent.com/91520/violent-crime-is-down-in-arizona-up-in-sheriff-joe-arpaios-county. This shouldn't be blamed on illegal immigrats, since Maricopa is NOT a border county, and the border counties have lower violent crime rates.
Sexual assault allegations are mishandled by the hundreds:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2012-02-16/news/joe-arpaio-s-office-says-to-hell-with-the-children/
So, what has Mr. Arpaio really done for Maricopa?
Where is the measurable benefit?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/19/arpaio-controversy-latino-vet-injured-dead-dies_n_1158637.html
Yet the feds are in clear and wide scale violation of their obligations by not enforcing immigration laws! Why are you not asking them to step down?
And this. And that. And everything. Behind the ostensible "those of us who believe in the rights enshrined by our Constitution" sanctimony, the true motivation: opposition to immigration law and every conceivable form of its enforcement.
"we should not institute policies, practices, or laws that leave our constitutionally-protected rights vulnerable to such rampant abuses."
EVERY law is vulnerable to abuse. We don't turn to anarchy just because of that. These anti-immigration law activists would throw out the entire limited immigration system. It's obvious they just don't want to limit immigration because there will never be a way to enforce that meets their unreasonable standards. They aren't just against but outraged by literally every enforcement program. If you're against every form of enforcing a law, you're really just against that law. Notice how they never say, "Instead, we could enforce the law this way"? It's just opposition, opposition, opposition...and no solutions. That's why it's so ridiculous when they say "the system is broken": the LAST thing they want is a system that works in limiting immigration to the letter of the law.
But he has been tried and convicted in the media because of the pro-illegal hysteria. Immigration law is clear and they do not have a case. All they can do is to try to muddy the water to create confusion (Case in point), try to sanitize their issues and actively demonize the other side of the equation.
Agreed - If the DOJ has a case then let them prosecute him like anyone else. If he is guilty then it will come out, but the feds have been after him for many years and so far - nothing except a lot of hysteria, noise and gnashing of teeth.
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe_2011.pdf
By the Governments' own stats, Mexico is the #1 source of illegal immigrants, followed by El Salvador, Guatamala and Honduras which combined represented 8.36M (or 72%) of the 11.5M counted by the Census. The US has the above statistics broken down by age, sex, country of origin, and creates an interesting PROFILE of the "unauthorized immigrant population".
SO - if we are interested in stopping illegal immigrants in a county 150 miles from the mexican border, and police make stops and conduct immigration checks, the people detained will be overwhelmingly:
a) Norwegian
b) French
c) Chinese
d) MEXICAN.
Here is a trick "profiling" question. You are a law enforcement officer in Arizona. As such, you know that it is a requirement that applicants for US citizenship be able to read, write, and speak ordinary english unless they are physically unable to do so because of a disability. You come upon 4 young men walking down a road in the middle of the desert carrying backpacks and jugs of water. You stop to see if they are in need of assistance, and none of them speak english. Do you check their immigration status?
http://www.immigrationdirect.com/us-citizenship/U-S-Citizenship-application-Form-N-400.jsp?r=ga-cpc-cit_us-us_citizenship_requirements:m=e&gclid=CNm6j5Xo_q8CFUSK4Aoda0igHg
It is only because the illegals know they do not have a case that they are desperately trying to manufacture one in the media through misdirection half stories and false logic.
The bulk of SB1070 is highly likely to stand. There are states waiting for the ruling and will weigh in once it is given - so expect a wave of similar legislation. Secure communities is backed by federal laws and is not really and option. E-verify now has photo ID requirements and Real ID is in the pipeline. All of this means that enforcement momentum is building.
A few facts:
- AZ has double the national average percentage of illegals (1 in 18 vs 1 in 38).
- 1 in 5 AZ Hispanics is illegal.
- 50% of all illegals enter the country through AZ.
- 80% of illegals are Hispanic.
- 60% if illegals are from Mexico
This is not racial profiling but a fact - the greater majority of illegals caught in AZ WILL
What if you were pulled over and had to prove your citizenship, because you happened to have an accent, dark hair, or dark skin?
And you didn't have your passport on you?
In Maricopa County, that could be an ugly experience......
Did you answer the questions from @Inthedesert's questions, or just want to call names? From what I can read, you did the latter. Which begs the question why your comment was allowed by HuffPost. Oh, that's right. They would agree with anything that defends the Obama Administration. Forgot that.