Feds seeking indictment of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

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Maricopa County Manager David Smith and Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson were subpoenaed last week by the U.S. Justice Department, and are set to testify before a federal grand jury on Wednesday.

County spokesman Richard de Uriarte told reporters that their testimony will focus on alleged abuses of power by Sheriff Arpaio’s office.

For more than a year, Latino groups have been lobbying the federal government to end Sheriff Arpaio’s roundups of illegal aliens. The groups claim that his efforts are racially motivated.

Shortly after Barack Obama entered the White House, the Justice Department opened an investigation into the numerous raids Arpaio’s office conducts in which several thousands of illegal aliens have been discovered and processed for deportation.

In 13 recent sweeps, Sheriff Arpaio’s deputies have arrested 669 people, about half of whom proved to be in the country illegally.

In October 2009, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered Sheriff Arpaio to stop arresting suspects based solely on the fact that they are illegal aliens. The Arizona sheriff who has been called the “toughest” in America, defiantly said he will continue his sweeps which have netted thousands.

Despite the pressure from the Obama administration, Sheriff Arpaio has vowed to maintain his “crime suppression operations,” conducting street patrols looking for suspected illegal aliens. He says that he can still operate within the law, under Arizona human smuggling laws.

Last year, the five-term Maricopa County Sheriff said: “If I'm told not to enforce immigration law except if the alien is a violent criminal, my answer to that is we are still going to do the same thing, 287g or not. We have been very successful."

Under Sheriff Arpaio, his department has either identified in jail, or arrested on the street more than 30,000 illegal aliens in and around Phoenix, AZ .

 

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