The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona is pursuing legal action against the Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his department’s unnecessary and unconstitutional immigration law enforcement policies, Legal Director Dan Pochoda said.

Pochoda spoke to about 30 ASU students Tuesday afternoon in Armstrong Hall on the Tempe campus about immigration law in Arizona and its enforcement by local agencies, including the Sheriff’s Department.

The Chicano/Latino Law Students Association hosted the event as part of their speaker series for Hispanic Heritage Month.

“We are interested in spreading awareness and reasonable debate on the immigration issue,” said graduate student Mike Denny, president of the Chicano/Latino Law Students Association.

The ACLU of Arizona is currently involved in four lawsuits against Arpaio, Pochoda said. Their major case accuses the Sheriff’s Department of racial profiling in their enforcement of immigration law.

Eleven straight court cases have been ruled in favor of Arpaio, according to a news release from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

“We believe it’s a violation of significant constitutional
provisions,” Pochoda said of the immigration law enforcement policies of Arpaio. He and the ACLU of Arizona are contesting that some of those policies violate the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendments.

The Sheriff’s Department declined to comment.

Among the alleged violations is the illegal immigration hotline presented by the Sheriff’s Department in July 2007.

The hotline allows Valley residents to report suspicions of immigration law violations.

“One of the contributing factors to selecting people on the basis of race is allowing these anonymous tips,” Pochoda said.

He said the department’s enforcement of immigration law during traffic stops is also racially motivated and illegal. He said these traffic stops are conducted by stopping “people of color, then sorting them out after.”

Pochoda said the Sheriff’s Department is overstepping their jurisdiction, both locally and nationally.

“Traditionally immigration law has been enforced by federal authorities,” he said.

He also criticized Arpaio’s decision to hold crime-suppression sweeps in cities with their own police departments, like Mesa and Phoenix.

The Sheriff’s Department has received federal funding to enforce immigration law under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Still, Pochoda believes their actions violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by government agencies with federal funding.

ASU’s Immigration Law and Policy Clinic will be influenced by the ACLU’s legal action.

“What the ACLU will do will end up affecting all the immigrants within the system,” said Molly Weinstein, immigration chair for the Chicano/Latino Law Students Association.

According to the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law’s Web site, the Immigration Law and Policy Clinic “seeks to address the current vacuum of immigration services in Arizona.”

Students in the program provide community presentations on immigration law, study the impact of new legislation and represent clients before immigration court or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Pochoda and the Sheriff’s Department have been at legal odds in more ways than one.

Sheriff’s Department deputies arrested Pochoda for criminal trespassing in November 2007, after an anti-Arpaio protest. Pochoda was found not guilty in Sept. 2008.

Reach the reporter at cogino@asu.edu.