12/13/12 This is a headline we like to see: Arizona Sheriff Arpaio Loses Bid to Dismiss U.S. Bias Lawsuit The loss against Sheriff Joe means the lawsuit against him will proceed: Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department that accuses him and his officers [...]
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11/27/12 Sheriff Joe Arpaio is one of the worst anti-immigrant extremists our movement has ever had to contend with — and you and other activists on our side have officially voted him Turkey of the Year! With his history of racial profiling and corruption, we all probably have worse names for Sheriff Joe Arpaio –but in [...]
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11/21/12 This Thanksgiving, there’s a lot to be thankful for – family, food, and the growing movement for citizenship that we are all a part of. But while Thanksgiving means giving thanks, it also means turkey. That’s why we’re holding a contest to elect one lucky anti-immigrant extremist as our “Turkey of the Year!” We’ll announce [...]
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10/23/12 UPDATED: Unbelievable! The Maricopa County Elections Department has just admitted that they once again gave Latino voters the wrong date for next month’s election. This time, it’s bookmarks distributed by the elections department that incorrectly lists the general election date in Spanish as November 8, while the correct date (November 6) is listed in English on the [...]
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10/19/12 Maricopa County, Arizona residents are used to seeing tent cities, chain gangs of prisoners, and pink underwear.  This fall, as Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces a much closer reelection for Sheriff than usual against Paul Penzone, residents are also seeing impassioned protests in unusual forms, involving chickens and monarchs. Yesterday, the anti-Arpaio group Citizens for a [...]
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10/10/12 Anti-immigrant extremist Rep. Steve King (R-IA) hasn’t debated challengers since he was first elected to Congress in 2002.  But even he is caving this year, agreeing to a series of debates with Democratic challenger and former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack. Not so for Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the rogue lawman running Maricopa County.  In [...]
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08/31/12 UPDATE: DRM Capitol Group has joined forces with Get Equal this morning and “disrupted Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s victory speech to denounce his hypocritical policy positions on immigration and LGBT issues,” according to the statement they released. Watch video of the fearless DREAMers protesting: DREAMers with the DRM Capitol Group made their presence known [...]
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08/31/12 While Arpaio was basking in the spotlight at the Tampa Bay Zoo, things weren’t as good for the nation’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” back in his home state of Arizona. Apparently federal appeals court reinstated a suit against him, adding to his already long list a “federal civil rights and conspiracy lawsuit.”  Think Progress has more: [...]
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08/30/12 UPDATE:  It’s not just Sheriff Joe Arpaio who believes that Mitt Romney will in fact enact the immigration positions he espoused during the Republican primaries.  America’s Voice also caught up with Kris Kobach, Mitt Romney’s sometimes-maybe immigration advisor, who also said he had no reason to doubt Romney’s positions on immigration: [Mitt Romney] has taken [...]
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08/29/12 My colleague, Van Le, is at the Republican National Convention in Tampa this week, and she’s live-streaming the Arpaio press conference. Tune in! –
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08/24/12 With the news that Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be attending next week’s Republican National Convention, we have compiled a list of convention guests and delegates whose positions on immigration could be described as bad, worse, and worser.  As talk show host Carlos Galindo reacted to the Sheriff Arpaio news on Daily Kos: What would possess you to [...]
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08/14/12 Joe the Plumber is back. The hapless handyman from 2008 who became famous overnight for supposedly being the embodiment of the working class is now a Congressional candidate in Ohio, where, among other things, he has been blaming the Holocaust on German gun control. Last Friday he was speaking at a fundraiser in Arizona held by Republican [...]
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08/03/12 Given his long-standing history of buffoonery and anti-immigrant agitating, it should come as no surprise that Rep. Steve King (R-IA) presided over an embarrassing and offensive hearing yesterday in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Yesterday’s House Constitution Subcommittee hearing on King’s English Language Unity Act—a bill to mandate “English-only” government documents and services—featured two members [...]
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08/02/12 Yesterday was Day 6 of the Melendres vs. Arpaio civil lawsuit under way in Phoenix probing into whether Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office are guilty of routinely engaging in racial profiling. A post at Fronteras sums up how the trial has been going so far:  So far the federal judge hearing the case has [...]
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08/01/12 As the trial against “America’s Toughest Sheriff”, Maricopa County’s Joe Arpaio, continues,  the bar has been set high to prove that he is guilty of racial profiling, despite “offensive letters, tearful stories and reams of statistics”. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post: Arpaio has repeatedly denied the racial profiling allegations. And experts say [...]
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07/27/12 Most days, Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio acts like a caricature of a Western law man: the cowboy, “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” the man who brought back chain gangs, parades prisoners around in pink underwear, and clearly believes he’s above the rule of law. “After they went after me,” Arpaio gloated in a 2009 speech to [...]
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07/26/12 Yesterday marked Day 3 of the Sheriff Joe Arpaio trial that is currently underway in Phoenix, Arizona.  It was the most emotional day of testimony yet. Below are two of the most heart-wrenching stories from immigrants who are accusing Sheriff Joe and his deputies of racial profiling: Daniel Magos, a 67 year-old Mexican native who [...]
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07/25/12 When the notorious anti-Latino and anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio took the witness stand this week at his civil rights trial in Phoenix, he chose to play a game of duck and dodge, pinning responsibility for his offensive remarks and actions on others, including his deputies and the ghostwriter of his autobiography. Unfortunately for him and [...]
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07/25/12 In court yesterday, the self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” ran from his record of terrorizing immigrant communities. Gone was the swagger, and under the light of overwhelming evidence, he tried to scramble away and evade responsibility for all of it. 1. “I don’t get involved in those operations. I’m not there on the street patrolling and [...]
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07/24/12 Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio is expected to take the stand today, when a civil trial probing into his department’s chronic abuse of racial profiling resumes. The no-jury, single-judge trial began last week in Arizona, with plaintiffs arguing that Arpaio and his department regularly profile and detain Hispanics without probable cause, often only so that [...]
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07/20/12 This week, notoriously anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio heads to court, facing charges of civil rights violations, namely racial profiling.  (For a rundown of the worst things Sheriff Joe Arpaio has done, view this list.) Here’s what the media covered the trial: From Edvard Pettersson and William Hermann of Business Week: Stanley Young, a lawyer for [...]
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07/18/12 Several opponents of Arizona’s SB 1070, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, went to Court today to stop implementation of the “show me your papers” provision of that law. The groups are “seeking a court order that would prevent authorities from enforcing a rule that requires [...]
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07/18/12 Today, while campaigning in San Antonio, President Obama offered a new critique of Mitt Romney’s immigration record, pointing out his support for Arizona’s SB 1070: …We’re not going backwards when it comes to immigration.  My opponent says the Arizona law should be “a model for the nation.” AUDIENCE:  Booo – THE PRESIDENT:  I believe we [...]
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07/16/12 This week, notorious anti-Latino and anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio will head to court as a civil rights lawsuit against Arpaio’s tactics moves forward.  Between this upcoming trial, and the recent Supreme Court ruling on Arizona’s SB 1070 law–in which most of the law was struck down and the sole remaining “show me your papers” provision continues [...]
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06/29/12 Post-health care decision analysis from Francis Wilkinson at Bloomberg notes that the ruling might provide a short respite for Romney from his ongoing immigration debacle: The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Democrats’ Affordable Care Act has saved the Romney campaign from its recent message muddle. Romney ran into turbulence as soon as the U.S. Department of [...]
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06/27/12 Immigration reform champion Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) took to the House floor this morning to discuss the Supreme Court ruling on SB 1070, Arizona’s “show me your papers” law. Gutierrez gave a quiz titled, ”Pick Out The Immigrant.” Watch the speech below.  You’ll hear Gutierrez ask how Arizona officials determine which of the following are immigrants [...]
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06/22/12 A decision from the Supreme Court on Arizona vs. United States is expected next week, where the issue in contention is whether the law usurps the federal government’s power to regulate immigration laws. While we wait for a decision, Puente Arizona is taking the lead by strengthening “Barrio Defense Committees” in Arizona, where members of the community connect, [...]
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