After years of fighting against the racist and destructive policies of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona, leaders of the Latino community and immigrant rights advocates can breathe a little easier after having won a small but significant victory in the fight for human rights.
Last week, Thomas E. Perez, an assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice, announced the release of a 22-page report detailing the findings of a three-year investigation into the practices of Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, head of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
The report from the DOJ concluded what Latino leaders, immigrant rights advocates and residents of Maricopa County have been saying for years: the Sheriff’s Office has “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.”
The MCSO initially resisted the investigation by refusing to turn over documents or allow federal investigators into county jails until they were sued by the DOJ in September 2010. It is hard to believe that the DOJ was unable to initially compel the cooperation of a county sheriff’s office, when the federal government is able to launch surprise raids on the homes of anti-war activists and seize documents and personal effects.
However, even after three years of investigation and a massive amount of evidence, the DOJ investigation falls short of condemning Arpaio for his racism. Instead, the investigation raised the question of whether Latinos were receiving “second class policing services” in Maricopa County.
Shortly after the announcement, the Department of Homeland Security declared in a press release that they would suspend the sheriff’s ability to take part in the 287(g) and restrict access to the Secure Communities programs which have become the cornerstone of the Obama administration’s immigration policy.
The 287(g) program deputizes local police agenciesto enforce federal immigration law, while Secure Communities requires local law enforcement to submit fingerprints to DHS for ICE enforcement.
Due primarily to these programs, the risk of deportation is much higher today than even four years ago, with President Obama on track to deport more immigrant workers in one term than George W. Bush did in two.
Secure Communities may now have stopped in Maricopa County, but its effects were felt for three long years before the federal government intervened in a real way to end the terror. Furthermore, Secure Communities is still in full swing and spreading across the country, with the federal government even forcing some municipalities to adopt the program against their will.
Federal immigration programs that enlist local law enforcement separate families, encourage discrimination and create civil and human rights crises. By singling out the worst abuser of this program the Obama administration hopes to convince Latino voters that the White House supports the rights of the Latino community. However, without scrapping the Secure Communities program and providing a path to citizenship, undocumented workers will continue to live in fear.
The day after the DOJ made its announcement, Arpaio was involved in another horrific scandal involving Gulf War veteran and U.S. citizen Ernest Atencio, who was found unresponsive in a Maricopa County jail cell. After a scuffle with police officers, he was declared brain dead and was put on life support in the hospital. On Dec. 20, Atencio’s family took him off life support and began preparing for his funeral. Atencio died later that day.
