Controversial Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, he of the corn dogs and pink underdrawers, was stripped of his authority to arrest suspected illegal aliens for being illegal.
"It's all politics," Arpaio said of the Department of Homeland Security's decision.
Arpaio will still have the power to check the immigration status of people booked by his officers, but not the authority to conduct street patrols looking for illegal immigrants ... his "crime suppression operations" are saturation patrols in designated areas where deputies would find illegal immigrants by stopping them for traffic infractions and minor violations, the East Valley Tribune says ... the department of Justice and other federal agencies are investigating the sheriff’s office on accusations of racial profiling during the operations, the paper says.
Arpaio said he will be able to still conduct the crime sweeps under state human smuggling laws and an obscure federal law that allows local police to arrest illegal immigrants ... "Now I’m not under their control," Arpaio said. "Nothing changes; that’s the irony of all of this." He will conduct one in two weeks "with a new twist." Arpaio did not go into further detail about what that means.
Did anyone actually accuse Homeland Security of having sense? Aww, c'mon!
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