Immigration

Renegade Sheriff Grounded

Joe Arpaio can no longer arrest suspects on streets.

The Obama administration has clipped the wings of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the immigration hardliner who has used his local authority to arrest over 30,000 undocumented immigrants in just two years, has faced accusations of racial profiling, and, perhaps most famously, forces his inmates to wear pink underwear. According to the Obama administration's decision, local authorities will no longer have the power to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants in the streets, though pro-immigration activists are upset that the Obama administration is maintaining some elements of the program that gave Arpaio his authority. "They took away my authority on the streets,” Arpaio said. “That doesn't matter because I will still pursue illegals on the streets of Maricopa utilizing the authority I have as the elected official."