You’ve heard a lot about the Justice Department’s lawsuit to stop the new Arizona immigration law. But that’s just one part of the Obama administration’s multi-front war on immigration enforcement in Arizona.

In addition to the drive to kill the new law, Attorney General Eric Holder is also suing the Maricopa Community College system in Phoenix, alleging it broke the law by requiring a job seeker to provide a green card before being hired. And on Thursday the Justice Department filed suit against the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office, run by the flamboyant Joe Arpaio, as part of an extended investigation into alleged civil rights violations there.

Despite the splash of attention from the newest lawsuit, the Justice Department’s investigation of Arpaio could end badly for Holder. When the Department first informed Arpaio that a probe was under way, back in March 2009, it sent a letter saying the investigation would focus on “alleged patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures.” But now we learn that just six months before that, in September 2008, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, did its own investigation of Arpaio’s office — and gave it a clean bill of health. Arpaio’s lawyers recently got a copy of the ICE report through the Freedom of Information Act.

ICE officials evaluated how the sheriff’s office performed under a law that allows specially trained local law enforcement officers to enforce parts of federal immigration law. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which is the largest sheriff’s office in the Arizona, has 189 officers who have been trained by ICE to enforce federal immigration statutes.

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Nearly a dozen states have filed a legal brief in support of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

A”friend of the court” brief filed with the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday argues that a federal judge was wrong to block implementation of key provisions of the law.

The brief submitted by Michigan Attorney General Michael Cox argues that the judge used the wrong legal standard to rule on the U.S. Justice Department’s request for a preliminary injunction.

It also says the judge erred in ruling that the law interferes with the executive branch’s immigration enforcement priorities.

Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia joined in the filing.

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Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said the Obama administration’s decision to file a lawsuit against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not surprising, but that men and women in law enforcement will stand by the man they believe is enforcing the law and protecting the citizens of Arizona.  

“Hooray for Sheriff Joe,” Babeu told CNSNews.com. “He’s standing up for Arizona and is actually enforcing the law.”

Babeu said the lawsuit against Arpaio is the latest in a series of attacks by the U.S. Department of  Justice (DOJ), which has already filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona, challenging legislation passed earlier this year to crack down on illegal immigration in the state.

The DOJ lawsuit against the state claims that Arizona is usurping the federal government’s sole right to enforce immigration law.

The case against Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office basically concerns what the DOJ says is that office’s interference with its investigation into claims that the Sheriff’s Office  uses discriminatory practices to catch illegal immigrants.

The lawsuit cites Title VI of the Civil rights Act and states that, “Since March 2009, the United States has attempted to secure Defendants’ voluntary cooperation with the United States’ investigation of alleged national origin discrimination in Defendants’ police practices and jail operations. Despite notice of their obligation to comply in full with the United States’ requests for information, Defendants have refused to do so. Defendants’ refusal to cooperate with reasonable requests for information regarding the use of federal funds is a violation of Defendants’ statutory, regulatory, and contractual obligations. The United States accordingly seeks a judgment granting declaratory and injunctive relief for Defendants’ violations of the law.”

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PHOENIX — A Wyoming man has given more than $1.5 million to help defend Arizona’s controversial immigration enforcement measure in court, Gov. Jan Brewer’s office said Thursday.

The contribution from Timothy Mellon of Saratoga is the largest to Brewer’s defense fund, which has amassed more than $3.6 million from 41,000 donors nationwide. Mellon could not immediately be reached for comment.

The latest legal bills released Thursday show Brewer’s office has spent more than $440,000 for the first two months of defending the law.

The bills, obtained through a public records request by The Associated Press, are for work performed through June by Phoenix law firm Snell & Wilmer. They do not cover July hearings in federal court before a judge Susan Bolton temporarily blocked enforcement of the law’s most controversial provisions.

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Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday the Justice Department “sandbagged” him with the lawsuit it filed earlier in the day against him.

Democrat Attorney General candidate Felecia Rotellini has said she was unaware that one of her major campaign contributors is actively working to harm Arizona’s economy by calling for a boycott of the state.

Rotellini has accepted $4,176 from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), which supports a boycott due to their opposition of SB 1070 Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law.

Republican Attorney General nominee Tom Horne said, “Now that she knows, she should return the money. We’ve seen the effects of these boycotts: business travel has slackened, conventions have been canceled, various groups have refused to come to Arizona, and many Arizona jobs have been lost. My opponent opposed SB 1070. That cannot be changed. But, the least she can do is return the money contributed by a group pushing to boycott Arizona.”

The question Rotellini should be asked is why she is in concert with out-of-state unions that are committed to influencing Arizona’s laws through economic coercion?

Hat tip: Seeing Red AZ

The State Department included a Justice Department lawsuit against Arizona’s immigration law into a United Nations human rights report to show how U.S. rule of law can be an example to the world, a State Department spokesman said Monday.

Spokesman P.J. Crowley said the Arizona immigration law included in an Aug. 20 report to the U.N. high commissioner on rights came up during the preparation period, when teams went around the country gathering ideas for the report.

Crowley said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton included the dispute in the report because she thought the U.S. could serve as “a model” to other nations.

“The universal periodic review, we believe, can be a model to demonstrate, you know, to other countries, even other countries on the Human Rights Council, this is how you engage civil society,’ Crowley told reporters.

“And the Arizona immigration law is a good example of how we are debating this as a society. There is a legal case ongoing. And this issue will be resolved under the rule of law,” he said.

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Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate and millionaire businessman Buz Mills is taking on a new challenge.

He’s focusing his fundraising efforts on helping two Arizona sheriffs defend themselves against lawsuits challenging Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

Mills is chairing the Border Sheriffs, a new non-profit organization set up to raise private funds to cover the legal fees of Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, two of the state’s 15 county sheriffs named in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil-rights groups.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio also is named as a defendant in a separate lawsuit filed by the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, but he is not part of the Border Sheriffs group. None of the other four Senate Bill 1070 lawsuits name any sheriffs as defendants.

Mills said the goal of the Border Sheriffs is not to defend SB 1070, which he supports as a tool for law enforcement, but to help the sheriffs on the front lines. Cochise County shares about 80 miles of border with Mexico, and Pinal County is a major corridor of travel for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

“Helping them raise funds lets them focus on their main job: protecting Arizonans against this international violence,” Mills said.

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If any theme emerged from the Aug. 24 primary, it’s that there wasn’t a single overarching theme.

Instead, there was a little bit of everything.

Some tea party candidates and “outsiders” won, which confirms that the anti-establishment sentiment directed at Washington, D.C. extends to Arizona.

But the sentiment’s reach wasn’t very deep – or it didn’t go deep enough.

Indeed, big names and well-oiled political machineries delivered in several races.

John McCain, the clear establishment candidate, trounced J.D. Hayworth in the Republican primary for the US Senate.

But it was also one of the most expensive U.S. Senate races in the country; McCain spent almost $25 million, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks campaign spending.

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In a press release titled Governor Brewer condemns US State Department Report to UN Council on Human Rights, our Governor is taking on the whole world. Well, not the whole world just the United Nations and our own State Department, and the Obama Administration (again).

PHOENIX – In correspondence sent today to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Governor Jan Brewer has condemned the “Universal Periodic Review” report submitted to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Governor Brewer has requested that Secretary Clinton amend the report to the United Nations to remove the paragraph on S.B. 1070.

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