Now, after passing the nation’s toughest immigration law, one that gives the police broad power to stop people on suspicion of being here illegally, Arizona state finds itself in perhaps the harshest spotlight in a decade.
Joseph M. Arpaio, Sheriff in Arizona.
"Joseph M. Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, is a hero to those who campaign against illegal immigration and a pariah to immigration advocates. A publicity magnet and television darling, Mr Arpaio calls himself ''the toughest sheriff in America.''...
"...In February 2009, members of Congress asked the Justice and of Department Homeland Security to investigate accusations that the sheriff has engaged in a pattern of racial profiling and other abuses against Latino residents...."
"...As sheriff, Mr. Arpaio first gained national attention in the 1990s for forcing inmates to wear pink underwear, housing them in tents and feeding them food of a green hue, and provoked an outcry when he marched 200 illegal immigrant inmates in the streets from one jail to another.
In Phoenix, Maria Luis fears losing her sons Lambert (l.) and Jose
....The family is divided by their birthplaces: Jose Luis and his mother are from Mexico; his two siblings were born in Arizona. The legislation, the toughest in the nation, gives cops the power to arrest anyone who can't prove he lives in the U.S. legally. The state's estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants include Jose Luis and his mom, who launched a new life in Arizona when she was 19 and her baby boy just 1. "I never thought the law would get this far. Now I'm afraid to lose some of my children," said his mom, Maria, 39 years old...
Demonstrators protest Arizona's new immigration enforcement law outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs building in Phoenix.
