The office of an Arizona lawman who styles himself America’s toughest sheriff improperly targeted Hispanics in routine patrols for undocumented immigrants, a federal judge has found. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22664299  Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was sued by a group of Hispanic drivers who said his deputies relied on race when choosing whom to stop.  “Singling people out for traffic stops and detentions simply because they’re Latino is illegal and just plain un-American.”  “The evidence demonstrates that the [Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office] specifically equated being a Hispanic or Mexican (as opposed to Caucasian or African-American) day labourer with being an unauthorized alien,”
The case was brought by a Mexican tourist stopped outside a church where day labourers were known to congregate and subsequently detained for nine hours. Mr Arpaio’s office has also been sued by the US justice department, which accused his office of multiple civil liberties violations, including punishing Hispanic jail inmates for speaking Spanish.