Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Federal Court Again, DOJ Joins Consent Decree Negotiations in Racial Profiling Class Action

Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MSCO) was in federal court again on Friday.  Having previously been found after a trial to have engaged in a pattern and practice of racial profiliing of Latinos in the name of immigration enforcement, MSCO now is negotiating a consent decree to enforce the ruling with the ACLU, MALDEF, and other lawyers for the plaintiffs.  Added on Friday to the negotiations by Judge Snow was the U.S. Department of Justice, which also has a class action pending involving discrimination by the MSCO against Latinos.  The parties will negotiate new protocols for training, record keeping and an independent monitor for the MCSO, to ensure the office  complies with the court’s ruling.  The next hearing in the case  is on August 30.

All in all, Sheriff Arpaio, who has toned down his fiery rhetoric in the wake of the court’s ruling, appears to be out of the immigration enforcement business.

For more details on this story from a close observer of the MSCO litigation, Jude Joffe-Block, click here and here.

KJ