Last week marked the end of Joe Arpaio’s seven-day civil trial to determine whether the sheriff is guilty of racial profiling. Trial testimony was heard from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and the county’s Latino residents, who have suffered from Arpaio’s practice of targeting Latinos for discriminatory traffic stops and imposing illegal detentions.
The ACLU lawsuit strives to “put an end to the MCSO’s illegal practice of targeting Latinos for traffic stops and subjecting Latino drivers and passengers to humiliating extended detentions for the purpose of interrogations into nationality and immigration status.”
Meanwhile, Arpaio has publicly stated that he has no qualms about racial profiling, and refuses to acknowledge Deferred Action, which will grant temporary immunity from imprisonment and deportation to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.