Sheriff Joe Arpaio to halt squad known for workplace raids

An Arizona sheriff known for being tough on immigration plans to terminate a controversial squad that has for years conducted workplace raids in which hundreds of undocumented workers have been arrested.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was sued earlier this year over the workplace raids conducted by his office’s criminal employment squad. Through a memo filed on Wednesday, lawyers representing Arpaio told a judge overseeing the lawsuit that the sheriff intends to close the squad once an investigation concludes at the end of January or early February.

SEE ALSO: Lawsuit seeks to stop Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s workplace raids

Since 2008, Arpaio and his deputies have conducted more than 80 workplace raids. The raids have led to the arrest of about 790 undocumented workers who were charged with using fake or stolen IDs to get jobs. The felony charges have led to immigrants being deported.

“This could not have been possible if not for the courage of undocumented workers who came forward to challenge the workplace raids,” Carlos Garcia, director of Puente Arizona, said reacting to the news. “The community targeted by Arpaio’s war of attrition is turning the tables on the Sheriff.”

Garcia’s group is one of several plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Arpaio. The suit alleges that two state laws allowing Arpaio’s deputies to carry out workplace raids in search of undocumented workers are unconstitutional. It also claims that Arpaio’s enforcement of the two state laws “turn immigrants into felons simply for working to provide for their families.”

Annie Lai, a director of the UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic and an attorney in the case, said the announcement “certainly does not resolve the suit.”

“We will continue with the case until we get an enforceable order from the federal court,” she said.

SEE ALSO: Judge rules that Joe Arpaio is racial profiling people

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