Hayley Ringle
The Arizona Republic
12/27/2011
Local Latino community leaders and activists called for the resignation of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Monday and asked that his officers change their tactics and stop what they call racial profiling.
Antonio Bustamante, a civil-rights attorney and director of Los Abogados, Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association, said federal Judge Murray Snow’s ruling Friday is “monumentally important” because it confirms that officers are not authorized to pull anyone over if they think they are in the country illegally.
“Mere presence is not a crime,” said Bustamante, who sat at a long table inside El Portal, a downtown Phoenix Mexican restaurant.
Snow’s ruling will curtail the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s ability to target illegal immigrants. It also gives thousands of Hispanics standing in a civil lawsuit that seeks to alter Arpaio’s immigration-enforcement efforts…
The article continues at The Arizona Republic.
