Joe Arpaio: Federal Judge Blocks Arizona Sheriff’s Illegal Immigration Raids
Joe Arpaio is being blocked for conducting illegal immigration workplace raids by a federal judge. The Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff and his attorneys are prepared to fight the court order. Sheriff Joe Arpaio had been conducting raids which targeted suspected illegal aliens working at Maricopa County businesses, until Judge David Campbell ordered the actions stopped last week.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio cannot engage in any more illegal immigrants workplace raids, while the federal preliminary injunction remains in place. The Maricopa County raids reportedly resulted in approximately 1,000 identity theft arrests. The illegal immigration raids conducted by Sheriff Arpaio’s deputies sought individuals using fake or stolen Social Security numbers and other identifying documents in order to gain employment.
“Plaintiffs have shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits, that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary injunction and that the balance of equities and public interest favor an injunction,” federal judge David Campbell wrote in the Joe Arpaio illegal immigration decision.
Critics of the decision feel that the public interest is best served by finding and arresting lawbreakers. Illegal immigrants arrested by Sheriff Joe Arpaio committed one crime by entering the United States illegally and a second crime, if convicted of using fraudulent or stolen Social Security numbers. Supporters of the federal decision feel that the case illustrates why immigration reform is needed, as such action could prevent identity theft in the future.
Joe Arpaio bluntly stated that the illegal immigration raids are necessary because the federal government has failed in its duty to enforce immigration laws – statutes which many feel aid in national security efforts. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, U.S. Border Patrol agents have captured hundreds of illegal aliens crossing the Mexican Border who hail from countries on the terrorism watch list.
“The citizens of Maricopa County have been stripped of another protection that this state has attempted to enact to protect the integrity and identity of its citizens,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.
Carlos Garcia, director the immigration rights organization of Puente Arizona, said, “We hope that justice will continue to prevail, that not one more worker is arrested for providing for his or her family, and that the racist, anti-immigration machine for which Arizona is known is dismantled completely.”
The Arizona ban on driver’s licenses of illegal immigrants and a human smuggling law have also been overturned.
What do you think about Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s illegal immigration raids in Maricopa County?
[Images via: Shutterstock.com and Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons]
