Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to launch a crime and immigration sweep this week but declined to say specifically when or where it will begin.
It would mark his 14th sweep since early 2008.
During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city - in some cases heavily Latino areas - to seek out traffic violators and arrest other violators. (He did a sweep on Surprise not long ago which proved quite positive ....Warph)
Critics say Arpaio's deputies have racially profiled Hispanics. The sheriff says deputies approach people only when they have probable cause to believe people had committed crimes.
The federal government has taken away Arpaio's power to make federal immigration arrests.
Arpaio now claims an inherent power to enforce federal immigration law and is training 881 deputies to crack down on illegal immigration.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/surprise/articles/2010/03/17/20100317arpaio-immigration-patrol.html
On Sheriff Joe:
http://washingtonindependent.com/64174/sheriff-arpaio-claims-he-can-arrest-illegal-immigrants-even-without-federal-authority