Rev. Al Sharpton cited Sheriff Joe Arpaio as the biggest threat to civil rights in Arizona during a forum on the Downtown campus Friday.

“You cannot be a law enforcer and a law breaker at the same time,” Sharpton said, referring to Arpaio’s crime sweeps targeting illegal immigrants, which many political groups consider illegal under federal standards.

“If Sheriff Joe is listening, the Civil War is over and the federal government won,” Sharpton said.

The struggle between state and federal rights is what started the Civil War in the first place, he said, and Americans must not let proponents of states’ rights like Arpaio try again to supersede federal rights.

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“To defy federal law … is a threat to all of us and we must fight it all together,” he said.

Sharpton said he hopes the federal government will keep its eye on Arpaio.

“If he steps over the line, the federal government has the obligation to enforce federal laws,” he said.

Sharpton’s comments came during a civil rights forum presented by the ASU Center for Community Development and Civil Rights.

Also on the panel were the center’s executive director and professor of practice Raul Yzaguirre and state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix.

One topic of discussion was the need for advocates of women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights and racial rights to come together in a singular movement for civil equality.

“We cannot see civil rights in a tribal way,” Sharpton said, meaning that people “fight for their tribe, rather than for all.”

Yzaguirre echoed Sharpton’s statements, emphasizing that Americans are all struggling together.

“It shouldn’t be a competition,” Yzaguirre said. “What’s good for one is good for all.”

Sinema said the key to success in the struggle for civil rights is to unite the “tribes.”

“If we are able to bring all our communities together … we can achieve equality for each of those communities,” she said.

The panelists all emphasized the need to make education and health care accessible for all — specifically touching on rights for Native Americans, disabled people and gay people.

“Education and health care should be a right and not a privilege,” Sharpton said.

Sharpton urged young people to break the habit of thinking about civil rights issues like “bellbottom pants” or “something we did in the 60s.”

“Civil rights is a process,” he said. “It is not a style.”

Tania Mendes, a broadcast journalism sophomore and president of Associated Students of Arizona State University Downtown, said Sharpton and the panelists provided valuable insight for Arizonans, who often encounter civil rights controversy.

“There were good points about how the civil rights fight isn’t over,” she said. “We can look at the past, but history can also be in the present.”

Reach the reporter at jessica.testa@asu.edu.