Migrant worker files civil suit against Sheriff Arpaio

Judi Villa

The Arizona Republic
Dec. 13, 2007 12:00 AM

A Mexican citizen who is legally in the United States has filed the first lawsuit challenging Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's aggressive immigration-enforcement efforts, saying that he was unlawfully detained and that the Sheriff's Office is engaged in illegal racial-profiling.

The suit seeks, among other things, a declaratory judgment that Arpaio's actions are unconstitutional, injunctions prohibiting the use of Arpaio's anti-immigration hotline and directing the Sheriff's Office to disband its Illegal Immigration Interdiction unit.

Arpaio on Wednesday called the lawsuit "frivolous" and said it is an attempt to intimidate him before his office begins enforcing the employer-sanctions law on Jan. 1.

The state law threatens suspension and revocation of business licenses if an employer is found to have knowingly hired an illegal worker. Moffa also has challenged that law in court.

The lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office contends crackdowns in Cave Creek and Queen Creek and outside a Phoenix furniture store establish a pattern of "racial-profiling and abuse of authority."