By AMANDA LEE MYERS
The Associated Press
PHOENIX — The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" has never gotten so much resistance from the federal government.
The Homeland Security Department wants Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., to stop arresting illegal immigrants whose only crime is crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without documents.
The thing is, Arpaio doesn’t much care.
"I’m not going to bend to the federal government. I’m going to do my job," he said. "I don’t report to the federal government. I report to the people."
Shifting winds in Washington have led Homeland Security to rework a federal program that has allowed Arpaio’s deputies to make federal immigration arrests since February 2007.
It’s not known whether Arpaio — who has 160 deputies and jail officers trained to make federal immigration arrests and speed up deportations — will sign the new deal.
If he doesn’t, the feds say, he would lose his authority to make any federal immigration arrests.
The revamped program would require Arpaio to clear plans for immigration sweeps beforehand with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and coordinate with the agency before releasing information to the news media about such enforcement actions.
http://www.star-telegram.com/nation/story/1514160.html
