By Ap and Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 00:53 EST, 25 May 2013 | UPDATED: 10:19 EST, 25 May 2013 A federal judge ruled Friday that the office of America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff systematically singled out Latinos in its trademark immigration patrols, marking the first finding by a court that the agency racially profiles people. The decision by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow in Phoenix backs up years of allegations from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's critics who say his officers violate the constitutional rights of Latinos in relying on race in their immigration enforcement.Snow, whose ruling came more than eight months after a seven-day, non-jury trial, also ruled Arpaio's deputies unreasonably prolonged the detentions of people who were pulled over.
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A federal judge ruled today that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office racially profiles Latinos, a claim that has been made by critics for more than a decade
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Immigrants who were in the country illegally accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 'crime suppression' sweeps his office has conducted in the last several years
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Arpaio: 'My program, my philosophy is a pure program. You go after illegals. I'm not afraid to say that. And you go after them and you lock them up.'
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Evidence shown at trial demonstrates that Arpaio's deputies made disparaging remarks about Latinos during the sweeps
The group asked @placeholder to issue injunctions barring the sheriff's office from discriminatory policing and the judge ruled that more remedies could be ordered in the future.